Justice Roy Moore compares marriage equality to segregation as he accepts civil rights award

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore compared marriage equality to state-imposed segregation after a group of black pastors compared him to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Coalition of African-American Pastors honored Moore on Friday with the group’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail Courage Award” for his efforts to fight marriage equality, reported Left In Alabama.

Moore said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson – recognized as one of the worst in American history – could be applied to the same-sex marriage case the court will consider later this month.

However, he argued that federal courts should respect state laws by quoting from the dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, not the justices’ ruling – although he did not make that clear.

“‘There is a dangerous tendency in these latter days to enlarge the function of the courts by means of judicial interference with the will of the people as expressed by the legislature'” Moore said, quoting from the dissent. “‘In my opinion the judgment this day rendered will’ – he’s talking about the judgment in Plessy v. Ferguson, which said they could not sit on the train cars – ‘in my opinion the judgment this day rendered will in time prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case.'”

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http://www.rawstory.com/2015/04/justice-roy-moore-compares-marriage-equality-to-segregation-as-he-accepts-civil-rights-award/