Posted on 10/22/2003 7:01:54 PM PDT by tomball
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Alabama's suspended chief justice has asked that five of the nine members of the Court of the Judiciary be disqualified from hearing the ethics case that could lead to his removal from office.
Roy Moore's attorneys asked that the five step down for various reasons - including that two members have served longer than their appointments and that other members discussed Moore's case with state court employees. The court did not immediately rule on the motion.
State Attorney General Bill Pryor is prosecuting Moore for refusing to obey a federal judge's order to remove Moore's Ten Commandments monument from public display in the state judicial building. The judge ruled the monument was an unconstitutional promotion of religion by government.
After a protracted legal fight, the monument was put in storage in August on orders of the state Supreme Court's eight associate justices.
Earlier Wednesday, the Court of the Judiciary rejected Moore's bid to disqualify Pryor from prosecuting him.
Among Moore's arguments was that Pryor's office defended him in court during his fight to keep the monument in the building's rotunda, and that the attorney general cannot now oppose him in a related case.
Pryor has said that removing the attorney general's office from the case would "thwart the functioning of this state's system of judicial discipline."
Former Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts, who is representing Moore, said Wednesday that he doesn't understand why Pryor won't step down.
"You would want to think he would want to take away any doubt that there is conflict," Butts said.
AP-ES-10-22-03 2106EDT
You don't seem to grasp the concept here. We are a sovereign people. The government serves at our pleasure. Nobody, under our constitution, can dictate law to us, period. Our elected representatives make law on our behalf. If what you are saying is that only lawyers and judges have the right to interpret law, then we are not sovereign. If the law is so complex that citizens are unable to understand it using their God given common sense, we have given up our sovereignty....to judges.
FGS
Your not liking or agreeing with it carries no weight.
Tell me, should a Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court be able to defy three separate courts?
At the heart of the matter, IMO. Great piece.
FGS
It must be a bitch to be so damned smart, yet have three separate courts, including the Supreme Court, tell you you don't know what the hell you're talking about.
Good night. We're not going to resolve this, you and I.
It carries the weight of one sovereign citizen of the United States.
And you may be shocked to find out how many people agree with me.
Sounds like grounds for disqualification under any ethical code in the country. Oops, I forgot; government officials no longer have to follow the law. Wouldn't it be great if Bush nominated AND DEFENDED somebody with the balls to say he couldn't prosecute Moore as a matter of conscience?
If they're not Federal Judges, with jurisdiction over Alabama, it doesn't matter.
It's not about me. It's about Roy Moore, and he's going to lose.
At the moment, there are over a hundred members of Congress who agree with me. And they hold power constitutionally over those judges, as well as holding their pursestrings.
Now tell me this, would you like to help us rein them in, or do you think they are right? Are they right in their goal of driving God and Christianity out of the American public square where they have always been since the founding?
- What federal law required clarification?
- What law implies jurisdiction to the federal courts regarding a statue, religious or otherwise, being housed in a State building?
- What is the Constitutional issue involved here (for a State) which required Federal Clarification?
I believe you are wrong on this point and that there is no "...matter of Federal Constitutional law requiring clarification"
Please provide the specifics.
What I DO NOT support is a renegade judge defying a Federal Court.
In my mind? Absolutely! without doubt, and if the circumstances are such, he is duty bound to do so.
But....but...sinkspur....you said he is going to be Governor, right?
The man was duly elected by the people of Alabama, and that overwhelming choice is being overridden by a bunch of lawyers and judicial tyrants who don't know where the bounds of their power lie.
Lord willing, they are about to find out.
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