Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore praised a 1986 Supreme Court decision upholding anti-sodomy laws during a radio interview with a prominent anti-gay hate group.
On January 27, Moore wrote a letter to Gov. Roy Bentley recommending that he ignore a U.S. district court's decision striking down Alabama's same-sex marriage ban, in deference to Alabama law and “the Biblical admonition stated by Our Lord.” The letter prompted the Southern Poverty Law Center to file a judicial ethics complaint against Moore for failing to “conform his conduct to the canons of judicial ethics” and ignoring the basics of “Constitutional Law 101” - that the judge “has himself taken an oath to uphold the federal constitution, even if there are other sources of authority he agrees with or prefers.”
On January 28, Moore appeared on Washington Watch -- the radio show of the Family Research Council (FRC), a notorious anti-gay hate group -- to discuss the controversy surrounding his letter. FRC president Tony Perkins praised Moore for challenging the district court's decision, wrongly asserting that states aren't required to abide by pro-equality decisions made by federal courts other than the Supreme Court.
Moore went on to praise the Supreme Court's now-overturned 1986 decision in Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld state laws criminalizing sodomy (emphasis added):
PERKINS: This has been happening in state after state. We've seen, you know, I think 23 or so states where judges have overturned votes of the people -- 21 states where they have overturned the vote of the people, substituting their view for the view of millions of Americans. What's it going to take to stop this?
MOORE: Well, I think, Tony, we need to wake up to what the Constitution says. And the danger of this is, if we let judges overturn the will of the people and do nothing about it and do not push that, then the United States Supreme Court turns around and says, “Well, now, 30 states have adopted this, and that's a majority of the people that want it.” This should be brought out, because that is maybe what's going to happen. And in doing so, we're letting the judiciary run the country without constitutional authority. And that was exactly what the Supreme Court of the United States said in 1986 when they had a case in Atlanta, Georgia, Bowers versus Hardwick, and they refused to recognize sodomy as a right. And they said, "If we do so, we will become closest to illegitimacy." And then they said, “If we redefine a category of rights wrongfully, then we're attempting to rule the country without a constitutional authority.” And I think that's what you're seeing here. You're seeing the Supreme Court intimate, in the cases they've had previously on this issue, and what the federal courts have picked up and started striking down all the traditional marriage laws of the states and people not reacting to it, not standing up against it, then the United States Supreme Court's going to take this case in April and simply say, “Well, we have all these states that have now adopted, or, you know, turned to same-sex marriage, so we're bound by it.”
PERKINS: Exactly.
MOORE: And I think that's wrong, and I think this has to stop. And in Alabama, I'm simply doing my duty. I'm not doing anything to be noticed, which I've been accused of. I'm saying what the law is. The law is that they can't force their will upon us, because it doesn't affect our court -- our state court system. But when they try to make probate judges issue licenses, that is affecting our court system.
Moore's support for the Supreme Court's decision in Bowers isn't out of place at FRC. FRC filed a brief arguing in favor of anti-sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas, the 2003 Supreme Court case that reversed Bowers. The group has supported anti-sodomy laws abroad, and an FRC spokesman endorsed the criminalization of homosexuality on national television in 2011.
Moore's praise for Bowers on the radio show of an anti-gay hate group probably won't do much to ease concerns about his ethical conduct or grasp of constitutional law. And if history is any indicator, it won't do much to undermine FRC's position as a darling of conservative media, either.