Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said the acting justice who has replaced Chief Justice Roy Moore on the Alabama Supreme Court has “added insult to injury” as the embattled judge continues to wait for his day in court on an appeal of his career-ending suspension.
According to a press release Friday, Staver said Acting Justice Lyn Stuart and Justice Michael Bolin summoned Moore’s law clerks and terminated their employment on the spot. A court marshal and one of Stuart’s staff members were then sent to order the law clerks to pack their belongings and turn in their keys.
“Earlier this week, Stuart demanded Chief Justice Moore remove all his personal items from his office by October 18, 2016,” the Liberty Counsel statement read. “She also told the Chief that he will be escorted by a marshal.”
Staver called the justices’ actions “outrageous,” in light of the fact Moore is still awaiting a hearing on his appeal. Moore has filed an appeal of the decision issued by the Court of the Judiciary on September 30 to suspend him for the remainder of his term, which runs through January 2019, as well as a motion to recuse four of the current Alabama Supreme Court justices and three former justices who sat by designation in his May 2016 petition regarding the Judicial Inquiry Commission.
“The appeal is pending but these justices are acting as if the case is over,” he said. “And these actions are being done despite the pending motion for recusal. These acts underscore Chief Justice Moore, who filed the motion to recuse certain justices on the Court.”
Moore has also issued a statement asking the Court to unseal the case that underlies his motion.
“The hostile treatment of Chief Justice Moore, the demand he remove his personal effects, and the abrupt termination of his three law clerks (who had been temporarily reassigned to other justices) is unseemly,” Staver added. “The case is still pending, yet these justices make it appear like they have already decided against Chief Justice Moore. They need to decide the motion to recuse and the appeal needs to be heard by an objective and unbiased panel of judges.”
