MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Latest on Chief Justice Roy Moore's removal from Alabama Supreme Court bench over gay marriage (all times local):

Roy Moore has issued a statement after being permanently suspended as Alabama chief justice for ethics violations. (Mickey Welsh/Montgomery Advertiser via AP)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from the bench Friday for defying the U.S. Supreme Court on gay marriage, more than a decade after he got in trouble for refusing federal orders to move a Ten Commandments monument. It's the second time Moore has been removed from the chief justice job for defiance of federal courts - the first time in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building. The outspoken Christian conservative was ousted from office in 2013 for his stand in defense of the 2 ½ ton monument he had installed in the state judicial building, but voters later re-elected him. The judiciary court ruled that Moore defied law already clearly settled by the high court's Obergefell vs. Hodges ruling when he told Alabama's probate judges six months later that they were still bound by a 2015 state court order to deny marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. "We likewise do not accept Chief Justice Moore's repeated argument that the disclaimer in paragraph 10 of the January 6, 2016, order - in which Chief Justice Moore asserted he was 'not at liberty to provide any guidance ... of the effect of Obergefell on the existing orders of the Alabama Supreme Court' - negated the reality that Chief Justice More was in fact 'ordering and directing' the probate judges to comply with the API orders regardless of Obergefell or the injunction in Strawser (federal case in Alabama)." “We find that, when coupled with the intentional omission of binding federal authority, the clear purpose of the Jan. 6, 2016, order was to order and direct the probate judges — most of whom have never been admitted to practice law in Alabama — to stop complying with binding federal law until the Alabama Supreme Court decided what effect that federal law would have,” the Alabama Court of the Judiciary writes. Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the original complaint against Moore that led to the JIC charges against the chief justice stated this moring that the COJ "has done the citizens of Alabama a great service by suspending Roy Moore from the bench." Moore said the decision violates the standards of evidence and the requirement of a unanimous vote to remove a judge, and his lawyer announced an appeal to the Alabama Supreme Court. In May, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a complaint with the Alabama Court of the Judiciary against Moore for violating judicial ethics by ordering the state to ignore federal court rulings in favor of same-sex marriage. By the end of his term in 2019, he'll be beyond the age limit of 70 for judges, unless voters raise the limit in November. Moore testified Wednesday that the Jan. 6 order was just a status report to the probate judges and he wasn't ordering them to defy the federal courts. In the years after his first removal, Moore ran twice for governor, though he finished far behind in the Republican primaries.
The Alabama Court of the Judiciary finds Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore guilty of six charges of violation of canon of judicial ethics and suspends him for the remainder of his term which is slated to end in 2019. The judge told other judges to ignore the Supreme Court of the United States ruling on gay marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges).