Posted on 08/22/2003 10:42:26 PM PDT by anymouse
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's chief justice was suspended Friday for his refusal to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of his courthouse.
Roy Moore was automatically suspended with pay when the nine-member Judicial Inquiry Commission referred an ethics complaint against him to the Court of the Judiciary, which holds trial-like proceedings and can discipline and remove judges.
Ruby Crowe, an assistant clerk working with the court, said Moore will have 30 days to respond.
Moore met with the commission earlier Friday as about 100 of his supporters, several blocks away at the federal courthouse, ripped and burned a copy of U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's order for the monument's removal.
Moore said he told the commission that he upheld his oath of office by acknowledging God. Moore has said Thompson has no authority to tell the state's chief justice to remove the monument.
Moore had no immediate comment after his suspension was announced. His spokesman, Tom Parker, said Moore's attorneys would respond to the complaint Monday.
Although Moore's supporters have said they will try to prevent court officials from moving the monument, Moore's attorneys offered assurances that their client will not interfere with the removal during a conference call Friday with Thompson, two plaintiffs' attorneys who also took part in the call said.
A Moore spokesman said Friday that the justice still intends to formally appeal the order to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites).
Attorney General Bill Pryor said the public corruption and white collar crime unit in his office will handle the prosecution of Moore, who cannot perform any judicial duties while disqualified. Pryor said senior Associate Justice Gorman Houston will perform the chief justice's duties.
"I'm not happy we have to deal with these matters, but it is part of our duties and we will continue to do so," Pryor said.
Thompson ruled last year that the monument, installed by Moore in a highly visible public spot in the Alabama Judicial Building, violates the Constitution's ban on government promotion of a religious doctrine.
Thompson had ordered the monument removed by Wednesday — the same day the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Moore's appeal for an emergency stay.
The state Supreme Court's eight associate justices, meanwhile, overruled Moore and ordered the monument out of the rotunda.
Joe Conn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which sued to remove the monument, said Moore brought the suspension on himself.
"He knew all along that state court judges cannot defy the federal courts and yet he went ahead with this anyway," Conn said.
A Moore supporter, Alabama Christian Coalition president John Giles, said the commission was "trying to take down one of America's finest."
The monument remained in the rotunda Friday as court officials discussed where in the building the 5,300-pound granite marker could be moved and given proper security. Thompson said it could be moved to a private place in the building.
The ethics complaint, filed by Montgomery lawyer Stephen Glassroth, now goes to the Court of the Judiciary, a panel currently made up of four judges, three lawyers and two non-lawyers that has handled numerous judicial ethics cases.
Attorneys who sued to get the monument out of the rotunda, meanwhile, put their contempt filing against Moore on hold, now that Alabama Supreme Court associate justices have agreed to move the marker.
Moore supporters have held an around-the-clock vigil since Wednesday, and said they planned to continue to prevent the monument from being moved.
On Friday, about 100 protesters moved from the steps of the judicial building to a sidewalk in front of the federal courthouse, where Thompson works. Some ripped to pieces and burned a copy of Thompson's ruling. Demonstrators also held a mock trial, in which Thompson was charged with breaking the law of God.
"We hold you, Judge Thompson, and the United States Supreme Court in contempt of God's law," said Flip Benham, director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.
Inside the state judicial building, court officials were trying to determine where the monument would go and when it would be moved.
Ayesha Khan, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups seeking removal of the monument, said Thompson told the parties in a conference call Friday that he would schedule another conference call for late next week. She said plaintiffs would drop their request to hold Moore in contempt, or fine the state, if the monument is moved by then.
"Our concern all along has been compliance with the Constitution. Once the monument has been removed, our concerns will have been addressed," she said.
Khan said the attorney general, speaking for the eight associate justices who overruled Moore, told Thompson that building officials were looking for the best location for the monument and considering security problems that might occur because of the ongoing demonstrations.
One of the demonstrators, retired Birmingham school teacher Murray Phillips, said she knows the monument will probably be gone from the rotunda soon.
"I'm upset, but I'm not surprised. At least I am going to be able to say to my grandchildren that at least I tried to do something," Phillips said.
Bro, I can promise you, you will not meet a more active defender of the South and a bigger conservative than me. I'm also a Christian by the grace of Christ alone. I supported leaving the monument there and disagreed with the ruling. All that being said, what these people are doing now is a flat out joke.
Tit.3
[1] Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,
It does appear that this judge is going against God's will.
Are you making an attempt at irony? Most countries in Europe have state established/run/recognized religions.
Now, who would you say is doing the major heavy lifting of "throwing weight around" - Moore, or the ACLU and Barry Lynn and company?
And did you read the ACLU's email stating that they are GOING OUT OF THEIR WAY - hunting and searching - trying to find a lost 10 Commandments memorial so they can start (yet another) lawsuit?
There are Christians all over Europe who manage to be devout in their faith without feeling undermined by the limited role their governments take in this arena.
So you see the government on a search and destroy mission, eradicating any vestige of religious expression anywhere except in the privacy of one's own closet as a LIMITED ROLE???
Sorry for the caps but I have a hard time seeing the limited role of government in their ruthless nitpicking removal of any and all religious freedom in any public sphere. And I would not be called a Christian fundamentalist by any of the same.
Since the 10 Commandments are accepted by every variety of Christian as well as Jews, how is this a sectarian thing? Even if Moore is a believer in some specific brand, the 10 Commandments monument is not a member of any particular church.
The difference is that the liberal/leftist/secular humanist/moral relativists have only been making their interpretations of the Constitution for a couple of generations. The guys who wrote the original documents of the US would have been outraged at the decisions that the courts make now concerning religious freedom of expression. Tradition and history are on Moore's side. Modern liberal interpretation of the Constituion is not consistent with either.
Since the 10 Commandments are accepted by every variety of Christian as well as Jews, how is this a sectarian thing?Is this supposed to be irony?? Obviously there are "sects" who are not Christian or Jewish, and do not follow the Commandments. Buddhists and Hindus, for example, use a lot of what could be called "graven images".
Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion of all other sects? That the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute threepence only of his property for the support of any one establishment may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?
-James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance," addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785
-Eric
This point was addressed on another thread. Freedom of religious expression doesn't mean - and never has meant - that if one religion is expressed, it is automatically repressing all the other ones. IOW, according to this "no one should be excluded" idea, if the 10 Commandments are allowed, every other religion in the world has to have their tenets as well.
This is a false argument, generally used by those who want a religion-free country.
BTW, I am a Hindu and I support any legitimate expression of religion, as moral absolutes - which are essentially the same in every religion, since they ultimately stem from the same Absolute - as not only beneficial for society, but essential. I don't feel threatened by them, although in my scriptures - the Vedas - God's laws are expressed not exactly in the same way.
I would hate to be one of the law enforcement officers who actually assist in the removal of the Commandments. Remember what happened to those who dared touch the Arc of the Covenant!
Newsflash, I was in Europe a few months ago, and saw a painting depicting the Battle of Lepanto in a very public government owned building. The "other religion" hordes in the painting were portrayed having horns, tails, dog and monkey faces, etc.
I wondered when someone was going to upchuck Romans 13 at us. And my answer to that is always the same: If you take Paul seriously, well, so much for the American Revolution.
Maybe the Feds should leave the states alone, and let people gravitate to those states they like.
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