The World Around You

Well, the latest tactic from the Moore camp is to try to have the judges dismissed for supposed bias,

Lawyers for suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore asked Wednesday that five of the nine members of the state Court of the Judiciary be disqualified from hearing his trial on ethics charges.

Moore’s lawyers filed a motion seeking to disqualify Sue McInnish of Montgomery and Sam Jones of Mobile, the two lay members of the court, as well as circuit judges Scott Vowell of Birmingham and Robert Kendall of Mobile and lawyer Robert North of Birmingham on grounds of possible bias against Moore.

McInnish and Jones were appointed by former Gov. Don Siegelman to three-year terms that expired earlier this year. But Attorney General Bill Pryor, who is prosecuting Moore, said McInnish and Jones have six-year terms and can continue to sit as judges.

“This opinion self-serves the prosecution by attempting to define who may qualifiedly sit in a case in which the attorney general is the prosecuting authority,” Moore’s lawyers said.

They also complained about what they called “imperial trappings” of non-elected lawyers and lay-persons wearing robes.

Pryor later said he was “appalled” by that comparison. He said voters approved the constitutional amendment that added lay-persons to the court “as a protection against possible judicial tyranny.”

Attorney General Pryor certainly has a flair for irony. Isn’t Roy the one who says he’s trying to “stop judicial tyranny”? I assume these tactics will continue right up until the day of the trial. November 12th cannot get here fast enough.