Former ELA Attorney Defends Alabama Senate Candidate Roy Moore with Biblical References

Jim Zeigler

Former Alabama ElderLawAnswers member attorney Jim Zeigler made national headlines last week when he invoked the biblical couple Mary and Joseph in defending embattled Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.  Five women have accused Moore of sexual advances or assaults when they were teenagers in the 1970s, with one claiming she was 14 years old when Moore initiated sexual contact with her.  

Zeigler, who is now Alabama’s state auditor, an elected office, has come to Moore’s defense, telling the Washington Examiner that Moore is “clean as a hound’s tooth.” He noted that Moore did not have or attempt sexual intercourse with any of the women. Then Zeigler turned to the Scriptures, telling the Examiner, "Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual."

(For the record, the Bible does not state the ages of Joseph and Mary, according to Margaret M. Mitchell, a professor of early Christian literature and the New Testament at the University of Chicago Divinity School, as reported by Time magazine.) 

ElderLawAnswers members may recall that Zeigler filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) because the House and Senate passed two different versions of the bill that were not reconciled before President Bush signed them into law.  The DRA placed severe new restrictions on the ability of the elderly to transfer assets before qualifying for Medicaid coverage of nursing home care.  The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama rejected Zeigler’s challenge.  Later, Zeigler launched an effort to help seniors use their life insurance to pay elder care costs and promoted his idea to his fellow elder law attorneys.