Posted on 12/20/2003 4:16:19 PM PST by RJCogburn
FORMER CHIEF Justice Roy Moore proves more and more self-centered with each passing day as he forces the state's judicial system further into turmoil.
Mr. Moore should have the grace to accept his removal from the state Supreme Court, and to carry on his political fight through other means.
Meanwhile, as judges recuse themselves from the Moore case as if they were self-propelled dominoes, the farce must end somewhere. Surely seven judges can be found who can impartially consider the slam-dunk case that is Mr. Moore's baseless appeal.
First, let it again be clear that Roy Moore's removal and his appeal thereof have nothing to do with whether the Ten Commandments can rightly be displayed in a courtroom.
The current issue is one of judicial ethics, pure and simple, and Mr. Moore runs afoul of those ethics with every new action. It was he who failed to properly appeal a federal court order, he who violated that order in a spectacularly defiant manner, he who thumbed his nose at Alabama's duly created system of investigating and punishing alleged violations of the Canons of Judicial Ethics.
Mr. Moore's former Supreme Court colleagues, as conservative a group as there is in this country, unanimously determined that he was wrong to disobey the federal court. A duly chosen investigative body unanimously charged him with the ethical violations. A unanimous Court of the Judiciary removed him from office.
And all this was in the face of strong public support for Mr. Moore's expressed cause of displaying the Ten Commandments. What possible motive, aside from clear and unambiguous duty, could lead so many eminent jurists to ignore public sentiment and, without a single dissenting voice, determine that Mr. Moore had strayed?
By appealing his removal, he quite deliberately makes a mockery of the state's judicial system.
Roy Moore knew full well that his eight former colleagues, as actors in the controversy, would probably be forced to recuse themselves from his appeal. He knew, furthermore, that drawing the names of retired judges from a hat would make the whole process appear farcical.
And now he knows that for every new judge forced into recusal, he further delegitimizes -- not by law or ethics, but by public relations -- the entire process.
Is it any wonder, then, that some of the would-be judges of this appeal seem to be doing contortions in order to find an excuse not to involve themselves? Retired civil appeals judge William E. Robertson, for instance, says the mere fact that he attended Mr. Moore's ethics trial as an observer disqualifies him from the appeal.
Enough is enough. Roy Moore's ego has become far too large. Saving his own job isn't worth the cost of undermining the people's faith in their own constitutional, representative government.
Let Mr. Moore go on a highly paid speaking tour. Let him carry his message far and wide. Let him even run for another judgeship.
But Roy Moore should spare his fellow Alabamians from another circus trial that will accomplish neither his reinstatement as chief justice nor any further enlightenment or other benefit to the public.
Too large? He said he would make an announcement that might change the direction of the country and it turned out he was proposing legislation.
Hardly a direction changing announcement, but clearly a nutcase.
Judgeship? His Excellency, Roy Moore, is running for governor of Alabama. He would never lower himself to occupy the same judicial bench as those who ran him out of town.
It's so obvious what Moore is up to, but his defenders think he's doing God's work, even though he's spit in the face of the Alabama judicial system, and continues to.
Why? Eight conservative Supreme Court justices in Alabama stripped Moore of his office. They were upholding the law, something the grandstanding Moore cares nothing about.
No. This belongs right here, on this conservative website.
Moore's argument about the 10 Commandments does not give him the right to disobey orders from a Federal Appeals Court.
OUCH!
Then take it to the Supreme Court. But to refuse to follow a directive of a federal court is also illegal, and allowed for Moore to be booted.
I also find it rather strange that Alabama law says that Judge moore can only be impeached by the state senate.
Apparently not. He violated judicial ethics, and his fellow justices could remove him. He's not even contesting that they had authority to do so, only that they shouldn't have.
This is also questionable to me.... What part of Congress shall make no law, do they not hear?
No he's not. If he was, he would have come down to Texas and sought guidance as to how to display the 10 Commandments so that it would pass judicial muster.
But then, he wouldn't be in the news, would he? He'd be just another judge who subjected his personal preferences to the law.
This is about Roy Moore, and his personal political advancement.
He WILL run for governor, which will make my case.
Supreme Court Chief Justices in Alabama are not allowed to disobey decisions from Federal Appeals' Courts.
If they do, they can be removed, as Moore was.
Ask them. Also, ask the Supreme Court, as it refused to hear Moore's appeal.
The issue of the 10 Commandments and displaying them is before the Supreme Court right now.
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