FOX NEWS: ALABAMA TEN COMMANDMENTS JUDGE SUSPENDED...

Drudge Report ^ | 08/22/03 | Matt Drudge

[Pokey78]

Orlando Salinas broke in a few minutes ago and announced this on Fox News.

[WOSG]

Well done. You win this thread's "Suck up to Justice Brennan" award. Here's another view, from Eagle Forum's Phyllis Schafley:

Are The Ten Commandments Unconstitutional?

	Dec. 18, 2002 Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore won his seat campaigning as the Ten Commandments Judge, and he has lived up to his billing. On August 1, 2001, he unveiled a magnificent two-and-a-half ton granite tribute to the Ten Commandments and other inspired words in the colonnaded rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building. Shaped like a cube, this four-foot-tall monument displays the Ten Commandments on the top. Each of the four sides of the cube features famous American words: "Laws of nature and of nature's God" from the Declaration of Independence (1776), "In God we Trust" from our national motto (1956), "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" from our Pledge of Allegiance (1954), and "So help me God" from the oath of office in the Judiciary Act (1789). The remaining space on the sides of the cube is filled with quotations from famous Americans such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and our first Chief Justice John Jay, from William Blackstone, and from our National Anthem. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit to get a court to remove the monument. Several years ago, when Roy Moore was a lower court judge, an ACLU suit failed to get a small hand-carved Ten Commandments plaque removed from his courtroom, but this time, the ACLU found a Jimmy-Carter-appointed federal judge willing to intervene in state court. Myron H. Thompson was confirmed as a federal judge by the Democratic Senate in 1980, only a few months before the Reagan landslide. If the Republicans had delayed confirmation, a Reagan appointee would have filled the seat Thompson now holds. Judge Thompson held a week-long trial, ruled the Ten Commandments monument unconstitutional and ordered it removed from the State Judicial Building. It took him 76 pages to present his rationale for this decision in Glassroth v. Moore. Thompson's principal argument is that "the Chief Justice's actions and intentions" violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Unable to demonstrate that the monument itself violates the First Amendment, Thompson's decision redundantly rests on Chief Justice Moore's speeches, writings, intentions, campaign literature, and even his association with Coral Ridge Ministries which filmed the installation of the monument. Thompson, who personally went to view the monument, pronounced "the solemn ambience of the rotunda," and the fact that he got the impression there is "a sacred aura" about the monument, as an additional reason why it is unconstitutional. He pretended to see the "sloping top" of the Ten Commandments tablets as unconstitutionally making the viewer think that they are really an open Bible in disguise. The "air" about the monument that he finds intolerable is augmented, he said, by the fact that it is "in front of a large picture window with a waterfall in the background" so you really can't miss seeing the monument. Thompson concluded that "a reasonable observer" would "feel as though the State of Alabama is advancing or endorsing, favoring or preferring, Christianity." What a non sequitur! There is nothing on the monument about Christianity. Does Thompson think the picture window and the waterfall somehow transform the Ten Commandments, which are Jewish law, into endorsing Christianity? The most far-out lines in this opinion are Judge Thompson's repeated references to Chief Justice Moore's belief in "the Judeo- Christian God." Thompson accuses Moore of "an obvious effort to proselytize" on behalf of his Judeo-Christian religion and even of being "uncomfortably too close" to supporting the adoption of a "theocracy." Judge Thompson is solicitous to prevent anybody from getting the idea that he is against the Ten Commandments. So he patronizingly opines that other Ten Commandments displays on public property are okay because the tablets Moses holds are blank, or the tablets merely show Roman numerals I through X, or the Commandments are inscribed in Hebrew. It's hard to see how even Judge Thompson's "reasonable observer" could think that anything was written on Moses' tablets except the same Ten Commandments that are on Chief Justice Moore's monument. This case has nothing to do with establishing a religion or a church, which the Establishment Clause forbids. The case simply poses the question, does the First Amendment prohibit us from acknowledging God on public property or in a public forum? As the Ten Commandments monument inscriptions remind us, our nation historically and currently acknowledges God in our Pledge of Allegiance, in our motto, on our money, in our oaths of office, in the Declaration of Independence, and in our National Anthem. This case is similar to the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals case which earlier this year ruled (now on appeal) that "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. The ACLU attorneys who won in Thompson's court are now demanding that Chief Justice Moore personally pay $704,000 in legal fees. If they really spent that extraordinary sum on this ridiculous case, it just proves how determined the ACLU is to remove all references to God from the public forum.

[concerned about politics]

Not to worry. He's our token Cuban who can speak English. He has license to run over anyone at anytime and not get banned. I've seen it!

Not very old, I'd suppose. Talks and thinks like a young teen, anyway.

[WOSG]

the fact that the state has no business espousing one particular religion over another is."

And what particular "religion" is espoused in the following display of Judge Moore's?

Shaped like a cube, this four-foot-tall monument displays the Ten Commandments on the top. Each of the four sides of the cube features famous American words: "Laws of nature and of nature's God" from the Declaration of Independence (1776), "In God we Trust" from our national motto (1956), "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" from our Pledge of Allegiance (1954), and "So help me God" from the oath of office in the Judiciary Act (1789).

The remaining space on the sides of the cube is filled with quotations from famous Americans such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and our first Chief Justice John Jay, from William Blackstone, and from our National Anthem.

Which religion worships the above American founders?

[WOSG]

But back to your point, (and I haven't read past your post I'm responding to, so I apologize if I'm addressing something I haven't seen yet), but I will happily concede that Jefferson, and maybe even Madison, would not have approved of how far the courts have gone in restricting the government with regard to religion. Madison, I'm not so sure about."

And how far would Jefferson go in theorizing that his OWN WORDS could somehow be IMPERMISSIBLE:

The remaining space on the sides of the cube is filled with quotations from famous Americans such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and our first Chief Justice John Jay, from William Blackstone, and from our National Anthem.

[jethropalerobber]

If you scroll back, you'll see a FOX poll. 95% of the people want the monument to stay in their state.

i question the accuracy of that number.

i don't see any such poll on foxnews or google and the poster who quoted it could not come up with a reference.

[WOSG]

"My personal philosophy is much like Jefferson's, I think. I want religious liberty for myself and everyone else. And I think the government should butt out."

This display is utterly and completely non-coercive. It doesnt change nor force anyone's opinion. As such the question is, can their be any free excercise and free expression of religious sentiment in the public space?

The ACLU and Establishment Clause extremists wants to deny that freedom, others of us want to permit that freedom.

[concerned about politics]

The ACLU attorneys who won in Thompson's court are now demanding that Chief Justice Moore personally pay $704,000 in legal fees. If they really spent that extraordinary sum on this ridiculous case, it just proves how determined the ACLU is to remove all references to God from the public forum.

As well as rake in their demonic ca$$$h at an innocent mans expence.
Ahhhh. Easy green, and the fools that support them fall for it every time.

[Concentrate]

Age has little to do with maturity or political ideology. He's old, though, IIRC.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Are you going to debate the point, or cast aspersions?

[WOSG]

Jane Doe v. Santa Fe, a federal judge ruled that graduation prayers must not include any mention of “Jesus” or other “specific deities” and that any student offering such a prayer would face immediate arrest and up to six months in jail. The judge threatened “violators” by saying they would wish they “had died as a child” once his court finished with them.

I am aghast that the legal profession CANT see this for what it is: Violation of the FREE SPEECH RIGHTS OF STUDENTS. By a Federal Judge no less. Sad, sad, sad.

[concerned about politics]

i don't see any such poll on foxnews or google and the poster who quoted it could not come up with a reference.

It very well could have been a scroll by. I'll watch for it.

[Luis Gonzalez]

No single instance that I mentioned attached sectarian beliefs to the concept of God, Moore did by posting the tenets of Judeo-Christian beliefs, and claiming that it was his "duty under the Constitution is to acknowledge the Judeo-Christian God, not the gods of other faiths." while in his Courtroom, and that "we are not a nation founded upon the Hindu god or Buddha."

Roy Moore staged this whole thing, and he is using the word of God in an attempt at furthering his political career.

[gsrinok]

By a Federal Judge no less.

Does anyone know the name of this judge? He should be impeached.

[WOSG]

"I don't care if he's a combination of Madame Curie and Mahatma Gandhi - by refusing to obey the court order, he spits on the rule of law he swore to uphold."

So, the Nazi guard were *right* after all to say "they were only following orders", since nobody has any right to question orders from "above".

And of course, all those civil rights marchers should have stayed home and in the back of the bus, instead of violating the hallowed laws of segregation. "Dont act 'uppity on me now!'"

[concerned about politics]

Roy Moore staged this whole thing, and he is using the word of God in an attempt at furthering his political career.

How will it further his career? If it does in any way further his career, that would be by the people of his state. If they approve, what's the problem?

[WOSG]

"Does anyone know the name of this judge? He should be impeached."

NO I dont, and while I have no illusions that we would ever be able to remove any such Judge, thanks to the complicity of the Democrats in these egregious rulings, it would be a good 'rattling of the cage' to let the Judges know their "rulings" are evil and a farce of true law. IOW, I am getting mad enough to think impeachment moves is a good idea for some of these jerk Judges. Too bad they cant be removed by voters like Judge Rose Bird was.

[Kevin Curry]

Luis doesn't believe in representave democracy. As does tpaine, Luis prefers a government of five black-robed life-tenured liberal oligarchs.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"How will it further his career?""what's the problem?"

You don't have a problem woith the Gospel being used to further the agenda of politicians?

[ChemistCat]

Self-ping to look at again when I am not too sleepy! Thanks for the post, and I'll try to do it justice tomorrow late.

[gsrinok]

I'm not interested in questioning his motives. God sees into his heart, and the final judgement will be His. I do know that Judge Moore's actions in this case have been on the side of good. That's enough to earn my support.