Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is facing an ethics complaint after he vowed to disregard a federal court ruling striking down the state’s ban on same-sex marriage — and in the process he’s quickly becoming the face of the marriage equality resistance.

The South Poverty Law Center (SPLC) filed the complaint Wednesday with the Judicial Inquiry Commission of Alabama, which has the authority to recommend Moore face ethics charges in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

“Chief Justice Roy Moore has improperly commented on pending and impending cases; demonstrated faithlessness to foundational principles of law; and taken affirmative steps to undermine public confidence in the integrity of the judiciary,” the complaint states. “For all these reasons, we respectfully request that this Judicial Inquiry Commission investigate the allegations in this complaint and recommend that Chief Justice Moore face charges in the Court of the Judiciary.”

The complaint comes after Moore penned a letter to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R), later released to the press, urging the governor to continue to uphold the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, despite federal court rulings finding those laws unconstitutional.

“Our State Constitution and our morality are under attack by a federal court decision that has no basis in the Constitution of the United States,” Moore wrote, accusing federal courts of imposing by judicial fiat same-sex marriage in states across the nation. 

U.S. District Court Judge Callie V. S. Granade ruled Friday and Monday in two separate cases that Alabama law prohibiting same-sex marriage in violation of the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Granade stayed her decisions for 14-days to allow the state to appeal. If no action is taken by for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to extend or lift the stay within that time period, the stay will be lifted on February 9.

“Moore is once again wrapping himself in the Bible and thumbing his nose at the federal courts and federal law,” said SPLC President Richard Cohen in a statement. “As a private citizen, Moore is entitled to his views. But as the chief justice of Alabama, he has a responsibility to recognize the supremacy of federal law and to conform his conduct to the canons of judicial ethics.”

This isn’t the first time Moore has been targeted by SPLC. Following a complaint filed by the organization, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed Moore as chief justice in 2003 after he refused to comply with a federal court order to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the state judicial building. About a decade later, however, Moore ran for chief justice again and was reelected by Alabama voters in 2012.

“We have gone down this road before during the civil rights movement,” Cohen added. “The chief justice is trotting out the same tired – and disproven – states’ rights arguments that were used to disenfranchise African Americans. Even if Moore isn’t a student of history, you would think he would be a student of his own history. The opinion that removed him from the bench in disgrace more than a decade ago clearly explained why he can’t ignore the federal courts.”

Despite the ethics complaint against him, Moore is showing no signs of backing down. Wednesday he appeared on the radio show of Family Research Council President Tony Perkins and warned of the dangers of allowing judges to “overturn the will of the people.”

During his interview, Moore said he is simply doing his duty and not violating ethics. He also said there is a lack of understanding of the proper role of state and federal courts among his colleagues. “Judges don’t have the final say,” Moore continued. “They are the arbiters of laws, they’re the interpreters of law, but the executive has the enforcement of the law and the legislative branch has the lawmaking part. We’ve given over to letting the judicial branch just completely rule as they wish.”

Perkins, however, said the actions of federal judges and SPLC is more sinister. Leftwing, anti-Christian groups that push the “pro-homosexual agenda” want to “intimidate people so they won’t bring up these facts because the facts are not on their side,” Perkins said. (FRC has been deemed a hate group by SPLC.)

Despite Moore’s one-man stand against the federal court ruling overturning Alabama’s same-sex marriage ban, the Alabama Probate Judges Association said Wednesday the ruling will apply to all same-sex couples in the state when it goes into effect. Previously, the association said the ruling only applied to plaintiffs in the case, but a clarification from Granade led the association to amend that view. 

As the number of marriage-quality states continue to grow, with the U.S. Supreme Court set to rule on same-sex couples’ right to marry later this year, Moore’s flouting of federal court rulings could be a preview of things to come, particularly in some of the nation’s reddest states. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is poised to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, has encouraged resistance to court rulings in favor of marriage equality.

In his new book, Gods, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, Huckabee writes, “Should there come a day in which the people of America vote to establish new versions of marriage — with their direct vote or through their elected representatives — those who oppose this change will face a choice: to either accept it, ignore it, or rebel against it. If a single judge can rebel against the people’s law, has he not encouraged others to do the same?”

While such calls for resistance may be few, those voices still carry. And if history is any indication, they may not go away quietly.

“An Arkansas governor and an Alabama official flouting the Constitution, thundering against judicial and federal ‘tyranny,’ preaching divisiveness, and claiming the sky will fall if civil rights prevail — when have we seen this before?” said Evan Wolfson, president and founder of Freedom to Marry. “Fortunately, calls for lawlessness from the likes of Moore and Huckabee do not speak for the vast majority of Americans, including the people of Arkansas and Alabama, and will not stop the momentum for respecting all families and getting America on the right side of history, with the freedom to marry and equality under the law, for all.”

SPLC Complaint Against Chief Justice Roy Moore