Although the nine-judge panel charged with trying Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore did not achieve the unanimous ruling required to remove him from office, it suspended him without pay for the remainder of his term in what Moore's attorney Mat Staver called a violation of state law.
"To suspend Chief Justice Moore for the rest of his term is the same as removal," Staver, founder and chairman of the nonprofit legal group Liberty Counsel, said in a news release. The Court of the Judiciary (COJ), which was charged with trying Moore, "lacked the unanimous votes to remove the Chief, so the majority instead chose to ignore the law and the rules."
Joe Godfrey, executive director of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, the Alabama Baptist Convention's public policy auxiliary, told Baptist Press the ruling seems to reflect "forces at work that seek to silence [Christians'] freedom of speech and religious...
