Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore responded Tuesday to judicial ethics charges leveled last month by the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission regarding an order he issued in opposition to gay marriage.

Moore, in his response, asks the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to dismiss the charges filed by JIC against him.

Moore had a deadline - extended to today - in which to respond to the JIC's charges. which were brought May 6. The charges center on Moore's alleged violation of judicial ethics when in January he advised probate judges in the state that the Alabama Supreme Court's order from March 2015 telling them not to issue same-sex marriage licenses was still in effect, despite the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling three months later making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

Now that Moore has responded the Alabama Court of the Judiciary will set a trial date to hear the charges.

In his response Tuesday, Moore argues that the JIC is comparing the current complaint with the one that got him ousted from the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003 after he defied a federal court order telling him to remove a Ten Commandments statue from the supreme court building.

"The JIC's complaint is premised upon the false proposition that in his Administrative Order of January 16, 2016, the Chief Justice defied the federal courts," Moore's response states.

The purpose of that Order, however, was to instruct probate judges about the status of the state-court injunction that had first been imposed upon them in March 2015, Moore's response states. The Alabama Supreme Court, days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling making same-sex marriage legal, had asked for briefs from parties on what to do with its March 2015 order.

Not until March of this year did the Alabama Supreme Court dismiss the petitions from two anti-gay marriage groups, including the Alabama Policy Institute (API), that had spawned its March 2015 order.

"The sole purpose of the (January 2016) Administrative Order in question was to inform the probate judges that six months after that briefing order, the Court still remained in deliberation on the matter and that, therefore, the API orders continued in effect pending 'further decision.'"

"An order issued by a court with jurisdiction, even if erroneous, remains in effect until modified by the court that issued it or by a superior court having jurisdiction over the order in a case before it," the response states

The response was filed by Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a conservative non-profit religious freedom group which represents Moore.

"The Administrative Order of Chief Justice Moore expressly said he could not provide guidance to the probate judges because the matter was pending before the Alabama Supreme Court," Staver stated in a press release in which he provided a copy of their response.

"The JIC apparently wanted the Chief Justice to openly disobey the Alabama Supreme Court and to take matters into his own hands," Staver stated. "The JIC's position is astounding and clearly wrong. It is no wonder why the JIC has no jurisdiction to render legal decisions. When it veers into this forbidden realm, it makes no sense,"



Staver also says the JIC lacked jurisdiction to issue the charges because they all deal with a legal interpretation that is beyond its authority. "We have asked that these baseless charges be dismissed," he stated.

Liberty Counsel a few weeks ago filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Moore against the JIC, asking among other things that the law that automatically suspends a judge when charged by JIC be declared unconstitutional. The group last week also filed a similar suit on behalf of Alabama Associate Justice Tom Parker, who also has been under investigation by JIC for public comments he has made about same-sex marriage.

The complaints regarding both Moore and Parker to JIC were both filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore Response by KentFaulk