Chris Cuomo Battles AL Justice Roy Moore in Epic CNN Interview on Gay Marriage | FULL VIDEO

• published: 12 Feb 2015
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Chris Cuomo Battles AL Justice Roy Moore in Epic 25 Minute Interview on Gay Marriage This you don’t see every day. New Day anchor Chris Cuomo battled Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore for almost thirty straight minutes this morning over Moore’s order that Alabama probate judges ignore the Supreme Court and refuse to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Some judges have followed Moore’s order, with same-sex couples filing to hold them in contempt. Cuomo argued that Moore was substituting his own value judgments over the ruling of the higher courts, essentially Joe Scarborough’s argument from a couple days ago. Cuomo pointed out that Moore had a controversial history of doing so, most visibly when he was removed from his post in 2003 after he refused to take down a stone monument of the Ten Commandments in his court room. (Moore was reelected last year.) Moore parried that at times justices are allowed to dissent from SCOTUS rulings if they are wildly in error, referencing the Dred Scott decision, a favorite rhetorical maneuver of gay marriage opponents. The most heated moment of the interview came when Moore demanded to know if Cuomo would have ruled in accordance with the Dred Scott decision had he been a justice in the olden days, and Cuomo responded that Moore was trying to shirk his obligations by foisting them onto others. Sparks fly as Roy Moore, Chris Cuomo talk gay marriage on CNN Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said in a televised interview Thursday morning that his stance against same-sex marriage was about the "ordained law of the country." "It's about sexual preference overcoming an institution which has existed in our state, in our United States, for centuries, and I think it's wrong," Moore said. In a sometimes testy exchange on CNN's "New Day" co-host Chris Cuomo, Moore also did not directly say whether he would obey a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that might make same-sex marriage constitutional, invoking the memory of the high court's past decisions that denied African-Americans full citizenship. "I will recognize that a United States Supreme Court ruling is binding on state courts," Moore said. "Me personally, I will make the decision when the time comes." Alabama Chief Justice Explains Why He May Ignore The Supreme Court On Marriage Equality CHRIS CUOMO DESTROYS AL JUSTICE ROY MOORE IN EPIC, COMBATIVE INTERVIEW ON GAY MARRIAGE: VIDEO. 2015 FEBRUARY. In a combative 25-minute interview CNN's Chris Cuomo took down Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore over his defiance of the marriage equality ruling which came into effect in that state this week. 3_mooreCuomo blasted Moore about his outdated definition of marriage: "You are clinging to a definition that you believe is divine." Cuomo then asked Moore if history wasn't repeating itself: "This is just like the Ten Commandment situation. You were told by the federal courts that you should remove the Ten Commandments from the public square. You didn't want to and you wound up losing your job from it but on principle you felt you did the right thing, is that not true?" Said Moore: "I must act when the jurisdiction of the probate courts is interfered with by one lone judge..." Cuomo then brought up comparisons to civil rights struggles, prompting Moore to snap: "Nobody's arguing about racial discrimination. This is about sexual preference over coming an institutution which has existed in our United States for centuries." Moore later added: "Our rights contained in the Bill of Rights don't come from the Constitution, they come from God." Cuomo told Moore: "You are putting God before the laws of man. That's not what we do in this country. That's not how it works." Chief Alabama judge would defy Supreme Court in gay marriage ruling The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court insisted Thursday he will continue to resist efforts to implement same-sex marriage in his state, even if the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of same-sex marriage later this year. Chief Justice Roy Moore likened an eventual U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage to the Dred Scott ruling and Plessy v. Ferguson, two 19th century Supreme Court rulings that upheld slavery and segregation, respectively. “If it’s an unlawful mandate you can refuse to mandate it. You can dissent to the United States Supreme Court,” Moore said in a testy interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.” “I will follow the law as I interpret it.” Moore has ordered lower court judges in Alabama not to implement a federal court ruling that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. Moore’s actions come despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to stay the federal ruling, effectively allowing same-sex couples to marry in the state for the first time on Monday. Chief Justice Roy Moore tells CNN 'this is not about the law, it's about sexual preference overcoming an institution' Alabama Supreme Court (complete)