Ethics panel wants Alabama chief justice removed from office

The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission wrote in the court filing that Moore — who was ousted from the bench in 2003 for refusing to remove a boulder-sized Ten Commandments monument at a state building — was again flouting the rule of law, but this time he was urging 68 probate judges to do so with him.

"Because the chief justice has proven — and promised — that he will not change his behavior, he has left this Court with no choice but to remove him from office to preserve the integrity, independence, impartiality of Alabama's judiciary and the citizens who depend on it for justice," lawyers for the commission wrote in the filing with the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

The commission said Moore disrespected the judiciary when he told probate judges in January that a state injunction against same-sex marriage remained in "full force and effect" even though the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled six months prior that gays and lesbians had a fundamental right to marry and a federal judge had ordered the judges not to enforce the ban.

Sharman, who specializes in white-collar criminal cases and corporate investigations, had served as special counsel to the U.S. House Banking Committee for the Whitewater investigation during the Clinton administration.

Twenty-three House members signed impeachment articles accusing the governor of corruption and neglect of duty after Bentley's former law enforcement secretary accused Bentley of having an affair with a staffer and of interfering with law enforcement business.