MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Southern Poverty Law Center has filed a judicial ethics complaint against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore.

The complaint to Alabama’s Judicial Inquiry Commission stems from Moore’s criticism of a federal judge’s ruling in favor of a Mobile couple in a same-sex marriage. Moore called it “judicial tyranny.”

SPLC President Richard Cohen says Moore is thumbing his nose at the federal courts like he did 12 years ago when he refused to follow a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the state judicial building.

The SPLC filed a complaint then with the Judicial Inquiry Commission and it ultimately resulted in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removing Moore from office. He was re-elected chief justice in 2012.

Moore says the law center is trying to deceive probate judges into thinking that they must obey an unlawful court order and issue marriage licenses to gay couples.

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