Roy Moore: ‘Fundamental Misunderstanding’ in the U.S. about Who Can Make Law
By Ian Tuttle
February 15, 2015 1:04 PM
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In late January Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) ordered his state’s probate judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, contending that doing so was in violation of Alabama’s constitution. On Fox News Sunday, he defended his order.
“Well, I’d like to tell President Obama that he’s entirely correct. Federal law does trump state law,” said Moore, remarking on the president’s comments from an interview he performed this week with BuzzFeed. “But what this Harvard professor who is president of the United States does not understand is that a trial court’s decision on the constitutionality of a federal question is just that, it’s an opinion. It may be law of the case before her [a reference to U.S. District Court Judge Callie V. Granade, who ordered an Alabama probate judge to issue a same-sex marriage license, despite Moore’s order]; it is not overturning the Alabama Constitution.”
“Federal law is not made by judges,” Moore reiterated. “That’s something very basic. . . . Those interpretations are not law. If they were, then the legislature would have no role. Legislatures are to make law. Congress is to make law. The United States . . . Constitution is law. So is [the] Alabama Constitution. We have a fundamental misunderstanding in our country that federal courts by their mere utterance make law. They do not make law, sir. They make law of the case, applicable to the parties before them.”
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