Chief Justice Moore is 100% wrong and he full-well knows it. If the court of last resort ultimately determines that he is correct in his litigational theory and argument, he can then, and only then, follow the course of conduct he chooses. Until then he must comply with the order of the U.S. District Judge as affirmed by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
When he unilaterally opted to disregard what on its face is a lawful order issuing from a court having jurisdiction of the subject matter and jurisdiction over his person, he deserves to follow M.L. King to the jail and spend time there for wilful contempt.
We are a nation and society of laws not men. I'd bet a year's pay that Chief Justice Moore has said that himself when admonishing a scofflaw for disregarding a court's lawful order to do something or to refrain from doing something, the latter in the nature of an injunction.
I have great respect for the judicial office of Chief Justice and the robes worn by the Chief Justice that represent 450 years of Anglo-American common law and constitutional tradition. In court I would address him with the deference due his office and the respect due his place in the common law heritage we enjoy.
However,regarding Justice Moore as a person who considers himself above the law of the land, the law that we have all contracted amongst ourselves to comply with and adhere to, Justice Moore is worthy of no greater respect or deference than the men with whom he should be sharing a cell in the federal lockup for being in contempt of the courts in whom we place trust to interpret and apply our law; whether constitutional, statutory or unwritten common law. He is a dispicable law-breaker and unworthy of the robes that hang in his chambers.
This fellow Moore is due precisely that which we attribute to any other person within the jurisdiction of our courts and law who believes that he is not bound by the law that binds each of us, the law that governs our conduct as a nation, a people, the law that he has taken an oath to uphold, protect and defend. This fellow Moore is worse than the moron who sticks a gun in the face of a convenience store clerk and steals a hundred bucks from the cash register. At least that criminal portrays exactly what he is and doesn't hide behind the cloak of a judicial robe. While, to the contrary, Moore not only knows better because he's been trained in the very law he flagrantly breaches or because he has benefited from the public education of one of our service academies and has had the faith and trust of the nation reposed in him as a military officer and ultimately as a judicial officer whom we honor and trust to hold high and enforce our laws, he is a far worse criminal than the convenience store robber.
Moore steals from all of us the ideal of a nation under law. He's the model for the next generation's law breaker who believes that obdience to our law is a matter of individual subjectivity; obey those you like and flaunt those you choose to disregard as not agreeing with your personal philosophy or whim.
There should be a special place in the lower regions for public officials like judges, police officers, and others in whom we repose our faith and trust to govern and enforce the law when they do the contrary. Moore fits that description in every regard.