The Alabama Supreme Court’s chief justice, who has fought against a ruling that struck down the state’s gay marriage ban, on Sunday insisted that federal courts cannot “redefine” marriage.
Chief Justice Roy Moore said on “Fox News Sunday,” that if the Supreme Court rules in favor of same-sex marriage, he wouldn’t be “bound” by the ruling.
“I could recuse or dissent as a justice from Delaware did in the Dred Scott case in 1857,” he said.
Moore said that while the state will have to obey the Supreme Court’s ruling, he doesn’t believe that federal courts can create laws on marriage.
“Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked Moore if he was putting himself above the law.
“When federal courts start changing our Constitution by defining words that are not even there, like marriage, they’re going to do the same thing with family in the future. When a word’s not in the Constitution clearly, the powers of the Supreme Court do not allow them to re-define words and seize power,” Moore said. “The power is not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states or reserved to the states respectively or to the people.”
“This power over marriage, which came from God under our organic law, is not to be redefined by the United States Supreme Court or any federal court,” he continued.
