Justice Moore Suspended

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | August 22, 2003 | Unknown

[joesnuffy]

LAW OF THE LAND Justice Moore suspended Ethics panel files charges for refusal to obey court order on monument

Posted: August 22, 2003 5:00 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A judicial ethics panel suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore today for refusing to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building rotunda in compliance with a court order.

Moore has 30 days to respond, said Ruby Crowe, an assistant clerk for the court, according to the Associated Press.

Earlier today, lawyers for plaintiffs suing Moore dropped a motion to hold him in contempt of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's order to remove the monument.

The attorneys said they believe it will be moved next week. Thompson, who had ordered that the monument be removed by Aug. 20, plans another conference call for late next week.

"Our concern all along has been compliance with the Constitution," said Ayesha Khan, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, according to MSNBC. "Once the monument has been removed, our concerns will have been addressed."

The manager of the Alabama Judicial Building, Graham George, met with Moore this morning but did not say what would be done with the washing machine-size granite monument.

Moore appeared today before the State Judicial Inquiry Commission, which heard a complaint asserting his defiance of the federal court order violates the state's Canons of Judicial Ethics.

The decision to file charges with the State Court of the Judiciary resulted in automatic suspension with pay.

Meanwhile, Moore's supporters said they were willing to endure the heat and additional arrests to keep the monument inside, according to the Mobile Register. Twenty-two people were arrested Wednesday afternoon.

More than 300 supporters attended a rally last night, the Register said.

"We will kneel at the doors. We will prevent forklifts or trucks from coming in," said Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, a group organizing the around-the-clock demonstrations.

Yesterday, more than 100 protesters stayed all day on the steps of the building to show their support for Moore, the Birmingham News reported.

The crowd sang "Amazing Grace" and challenged each other to try to shout, "God Bless you Chief Justice Moore," loud enough that the justices could hear it inside their offices, the newspaper said.

Eight associate justices of Alabama's Supreme Court overruled Moore yesterday, insisting he must follow the court's order.

The associate justices wrote they are "bound by solemn oath to follow the law, whether they agree or disagree with it."

The Christian Defense Coalition's Mahoney declared to the crowd yesterday, "Every minute the monument stays in place past the deadline is a victory."

Moore wrote a treatise on his battle to retain the monument in the July issue of Whistleblower magazine, WND's monthly print publication.

In the August issue, entitled "LAW-LESS: Why many Americans fear attorneys and judges more than terrorists," Roy Moore is the subject of an in-depth profile. Subscribe to Whistleblower magazine.

[Those_Crazy_Liberals]

Sad day. Someone needs to file a judicial ethics complaint on the US Supreme Court for having the 10 Commandments in THEIR chambers.

[DoughtyOne]

Sooner or later someone will.

[Glenn]

As an agnostic, I usually don't get involved in arguments about the like. But this is just plain wrong. I've heard this man speak and he has the courage of his convictions. May his God bless him and work on his side.

I hope 100,000 people show up to protect that stone.

I also hope the good people of the state have the sense to put 8 judges on the street next election.

[cake_crumb]

This is really depressing. It's a witch hunt by the ACLU. I wish I could be down there to stand guard around the monument.

[cake_crumb]

"I have read many stories of far worse judicial malefeasance and none of those judges were ever suspended or faced any consequences for their actions."

Me too. Judges are given a pass by judicial review boards for ruining the lives of innocent people just to prove how powerful they are, but let one stand forward to defend our history and culture and they figuratively burn him at the stake.

[dwills]

good, he's a nut--i only wish 'their' nuts would get suspended too

this whole thing about state judges answering to the US supreme ct has been around awhile, and for him to defy it over something that he snuck in the courthouse in the middle of the night and expect the taxpayers to pay his fine is nuts

[TheOtherOne]

Moore is a crackpot. He is no defender of my rights to religious freedom. He is defending his right to decorate a State Court building in his personal religion to the exclusion of others.

That is a big distinction which many here obviously choose to ignore when they mention the Supreme Court of the US

[TheOtherOne]

Sad day. Someone needs to file a judicial ethics complaint on the US Supreme Court for having the 10 Commandments in THEIR chambers.

Words mean things. Chambers is a private office. Moore is welcome to have his stone in his chambers, as would any judge in America. It is his placing it an a public building, and then excluding all other religious symbols that is causing him problems.

[Liberty Wins]

Look how illogical be the thinking of the libs - - The body of law in most all of Western Civilization is based on the Ten Commandments, and the legal and law enforcement systems exists to force people to obey them, yet the libs don't want to acknowledge this.

Maybe Judge Moore should have ten Alabama state laws chiseled in stone . . . .

[ellery]

Who paid for this graven image and how much did it cost?

[OldFriend]

Breaks my heart.

[Catspaw]

At this link to the Montgomery Advertiser you can download a pdf file of the complaint lodged against Judge Moore by the Judicial Inquiry Commission. It's 14 pages long.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWS/indexMontgomery.htm

[cake_crumb]

"Moore is welcome to have his stone in his chambers, as would any judge in America."

Actually, the ACLU sued him unsuccessfully for having the Ten Commandments in his chambers before all this started.

[cake_crumb]

"The body of law in most all of Western Civilization is based on the Ten Commandments, and the legal and law enforcement systems exists to force people to obey them, yet the libs don't want to acknowledge this."

Exactly.

[goldstategop]

A good man who paid a huge price for following his principles. Its not something you see from a public servant every day. The cosmic injustice of it all. Chief Justice Roy Moore gets suspended while President Clinton got to skate.

[ellery]

I think it underpins our moral system more than our legal one. JMHO.

[Non-Sequitur]

Actually, the ACLU sued him unsuccessfully for having the Ten Commandments in his chambers before all this started.

It wasn't in his chambers, it was in his courtroom.

[sweetliberty]

The thing is that this is a big part of why the people of Alabama voted him in in the first place. It is not the place of any federal court to be handing down orders that are not even based in law. They are wrong. There is no room for discussion on this one. This is an Alabama issue and the federal courts need to butt out. Period. "Congress shall make NO LAW regarding the establishment of religion NOR prohibiting the free exercise thereof."