People For the American Way Foundation President Michael Keegan issued the following statement regarding Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s suspension today for violating ethics codes with his defiance of the Supreme Court and lower federal courts on marriage equality:

Roy Moore has spent years advocating for the defiance of federal court rulings that he finds to be against his own personal religious beliefs. This is a dangerous position for anyone in elected office to hold, much less the chief justice of a state supreme court. The Alabama Court of the Judiciary has made it clear that regardless of Moore’s personal views on marriage equality, he still has the obligation to uphold the laws of the United States.

In February 2015, People For the American Way Foundation filed an ethics complaint against Chief Justice Moore for his efforts to stymie and defy a federal court ruling on marriage equality.

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