MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore, also known as the “Ten Commandments judge,” is urging Gov. Robert Bentley to defy the federal courts on the issue of same-sex “marriage” and uphold the state Constitution.

Moore sent a letter to Bentley on Tuesday following Friday’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Ginny Granade, which declared Alabama’s “Sanctity of Marriage Amendment” unconstitutional.

“As you know, nothing in the United States Constitution grants the federal government the authority to redefine the institution of marriage,” he wrote, stating that the recent ruling raised “serious, legitimate concerns about the propriety of federal court jurisdiction over the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment.”

The amendment at issue, passed in 2006 with 81 percent of the vote, states that “[m]arriage is inherently a unique relationship between a man and a woman.”

“As a matter of public policy, this state has a special interest in encouraging, supporting, and protecting this unique relationship in order to promote, among other goals, the stability and welfare of society and its children,” it continues. “A marriage contracted between individuals of the same sex is invalid in this state.”

In 2013, two lesbians in the state sued Gov. Bentley, Attorney General Luther Strange and Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis—among others—in an attempt to overturn the law after one of the women was denied from adopting the other woman’s child. Granade struck down the amendment on Friday, stating that it was discriminatory of homosexuals.

“If anything, Alabama’s prohibition of same-sex marriage detracts from its goal of promoting optimal environments for children,” she wrote. “Those children currently being raised by same-sex parents in Alabama are just as worthy of protection and recognition by the state as are the children being raised by opposite-sex parents. Yet Alabama’s Sanctity laws harms the children of same-sex couples for the same reasons that the Supreme Court found that the Defense of Marriage Act harmed the children of same-sex couples.”

But Moore, the highest state justice in Alabama, found the ruling to be tyrannical.

“Today, the destruction of [marriage] is upon us by federal courts using specious pretexts based on the Equal Protection, Due Process and Full Faith and Credit Clauses of the United States Constitution,” he wrote in his letter to Bentley. “As of this date, 44 federal courts have imposed by judicial fiat same-sex marriages in 21 states of the Union, overturning the express will of the people in those states.”

Moore said that the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples would be unlawful, and called upon Bentley uphold the state Constitution as he does the same as Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice.

“I ask you to uphold and support the Alabama Constitution with respect to marriage, both for the welfare of this state and for our posterity,” he urged. “Be advised that I will stand with you to stop judicial tyranny and any unlawful opinions issued without constitutional authority.”

“As Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, I will continue to recognize the Alabama Constitution and the will of the people as overwhelmingly expressed in the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment,” Moore said.

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