Roy Moore: Difference between revisions

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	Moore also said, "there is no morality without God" on ]'s talk show.{{fact}}		Moore also said, "there is no morality without God" on ]'s talk show.{{fact}}

	Moore's case drew attention world wide, and the controversy gave many an acquaintance with the judiciary issues involving the acknowledgement of God. Moore's position, that it is constitutional to make such an acknowledgement, echoes the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights..." Early American founders and Judical precedent abounded in such expressions. Patrick Henry (“Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” March 23, 1775) “...there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations...”<ref>[http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/henry-liberty.html</ref> Particularly prevalent in the writings of Washington; his 1st inaugural address:

	".....it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications ''to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe'', ''who'' presides in the councils of nations, and ''whose'' providential aids can supply every human defect, that ''His benediction'' may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge. In tendering this homage to ''the Great Author of every public and private good'', I assure myself that it expresses ''your sentiments not less than my own'', nor those of my fellow-citizens at large less than either. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore ''the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States....''" <ref>[http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/american_originals/inaugtxt.html</ref>

	Washington's acknowledgements of, and benedictions to God are part of history and the public record. Judge Moore's position merely maintained that he had the same right to acknowledge God as Washington, the same right to acknowledge as the Declaration of Independance. Not wishing to go on record opposing early American judicial precedent, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary chose not to refer to these precedents in Moore’s trial. In the end, the court's ruling removed Moore from the State's highest elective judicial office; an office which has, paradoxically, as its basis, the defense of the constitution and upholding of established judicial precedent.

	===Judgement and appeal===		===Judgement and appeal===

Revision as of 19:15, 6 August 2006

File:Moore Picture (tn).jpg

Roy Moore campaign photograph

Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947 in Etowah County, Alabama) is an American jurist, often referred to as the "Ten Commandments judge" because of his refusal, as the elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from his courthouse, despite orders from a federal court to do so. On November 13, 2003 Alabama's Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed him from his post as Chief Justice of Alabama. In the years preceding his election to the Alabama Supreme court, Moore had successfully withstood previous attempts to have a display of the Ten Commandments removed from his courtroom.

Roy Moore's supporters regard his stand as a defense of judicial rights, the Constitution of Alabama, and an act of interposition analogous to the actions of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Opponents contend that Moore's actions were deliberate provocations carried out in defiance of the First Amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States, and that Moore seeks to impose the moral positions of Southern Baptists on the public.

Roy Moore unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to the governorship of Alabama in 2006, losing in a primary to incumbent Bob Riley in the June 2006 primary.

Pre-judicial career

Moore attended public schools, graduating in 1965 from Etowah County High School. Upon graduation, he was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1969. With the Vietnam conflict reaching its peak, Lt. Moore first served in several posts as a military police officer, including Fort Riley, Kansas, and Illesheim, Germany. He was then sent to Vietnam, where he saw combat as a company commander and so feared being fragged (due to "being a stickler for constant salutes and regulation haircuts in the midst of war") that he recalls in his autobiography sleeping on sandbags to avoid a grenade or bomb being tossed under his cot.

Moore left the United States Army as a captain in 1974, and was admitted to the University of Alabama School of Law that same year, graduating with a Juris Doctorate degree in 1977. The nickname "Fruit Salad" was bestowed upon him by a professor for his unconventional legal theories. Moore began his legal career as a deputy district attorney in Gadsden, Alabama, but then, defeated by a landslide in his bid for Circuit Court judge, Moore sought other employment opportunities that did not require a law license.

For several years in the early 1980s Moore earned or supplemented income from legal practice by professional kickboxing and working as a cowboy on a 42,000 acre cattle ranch in the Australian Outback owned by Fundamentalist Christian Colin Rolfe. He remembered both careers fondly in his autobiography and subsequent interviews and was particularly proud of a kick-boxing victory in the Greater Gadsden Tournament of Champions, a triumph he attributed to divine will. He returned to Gadsden and the practice of the law in 1985. He remains a member of CrossPoint Baptist Church in Gadsden.

Judicial career

In 1992, Moore was appointed to replace Circuit Judge Julius Swann of the Alabama Sixteenth Judicial Circuit in Gadsden, Alabama, who had died in office. In 1994 Moore defeated well-known trial lawyer R. D. Pitts to win the seat outright.

In 2002, Moore ruled against a lesbian couple in a custody case. In his ruling he wrote "Homosexual behavior is...an act of sexual misconduct punishable as a crime in Alabama, a crime against nature, an inherent evil, and an act so heinous that it defies one’s ability to describe it."

The "Ten Commandments" controversy

In 1995, still serving as circuit judge, Moore was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for displaying a copy of the Ten Commandments in his court, and for opening court sessions with prayer. In at least one instance, Judge Moore asked a clergyman to lead the court's jury pool in prayer.

In 2000, Moore leveraged the attention he gained in the ACLU dispute by running for the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. In his campaign he promised to "restore the moral foundation of law." He was elected Chief Justice in November 2000 and was sworn in on January 15, 2001.

Late on the evening of July 31, 2001, Moore installed a 5,300-pound (2400 kg) granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the central rotunda of the state judicial building. The event was videotaped, and proceeds from the sale of the video were used to raise money for a charity he supported.

Federal lawsuit

On October 30, 2001, the ACLU of Alabama, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center were among groups which filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, asking that the monument be removed because it "sends a message to all who enter the State Judicial Building that the government encourages and endorses the practice of religion in general and Judeo-Christianity in particular." Evidence included testimony that lawyers of different religious beliefs had changed their work practices, including routinely avoiding visiting the court building to avoid passing by the monument, and testimony that the monument created a religious atmosphere, with many people using the area for prayer.

Moore argued that he would not remove the monument, as doing so would violate his oath of office. Moore further claimed that the Ten Commandments are the moral basis of U.S. law.

Moore answered yes to these questions:

as your purpose in putting the Ten Commandments monument in the Supreme Court rotunda to acknowledge GOD’s law and GOD’s sovereignty?
Do you agree that the monument, the Ten Commandments monument, reflects the sovereignty of GOD over the affairs of men?
And the monument is also intended to acknowledge God’s overruling power over the affairs of men, would that be correct?
hen you say “GOD” you mean GOD of the Holy Scripture?

Moore also said, "there is no morality without God" on Sean Hannity's talk show.

Judgement and appeal

Federal U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled the monument an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the government. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, the decision (PDF) of which, in part, reads:

The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court installed a two and one half-ton monument to the Ten Commandments as the centerpiece of the rotunda in the Alabama State Judicial Building. He did so in order to remind all Alabama citizens of, among other things, his belief in the sovereignty of the Judeo-Christian God over both the state and the church. And he rejected a request to permit a monument displaying a historically significant speech in the same space on the grounds that "he placement of a speech of any man alongside the revealed law of God would tend in consequence to diminish the very purpose of the Ten Commandments monument.

After taking office he hung a hand-carved, wooden plaque depicting the Ten Commandments behind the bench in his courtroom and routinely invited clergy to lead prayer at jury organizing sessions...

Every fourth grader in the state is brought on a tour of the building as part of a field trip to the state capital. No one who enters the building through the main entrance can miss the monument. It is in the rotunda, directly across from the main entrance, in front of a plate-glass window with a courtyard and waterfall behind it. After entering the building, members of the public must pass through the rotunda to access the public elevator or stairs, to enter the law library, or to use the public restrooms.

The Appeals Court upheld the earlier decision and returned the matter to the lower court for enforcement, which was initiated with a court order requiring that the monument to be removed.

Aftermath

Moore refused to remove the monument as ordered, and allowed the time limit for removal to expire. The state of Alabama then faced fines of $5,000 a day until the monument was removed. The eight other members of the Alabama Supreme Court intervened, unanimously overruled Moore, and ordered the monument's removal.

Moore was then suspended from the Chief Justice position with full pay pending a hearing of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (a panel of judges, lawyers and others appointed variously by judges, legal leaders, the governor and the lieutenant governor).

On November 3, 2003 the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal against the court order to remove the monument.

On November 12, 2003, the monument was removed. Because of the monument's weight, worries that the monument could break through the floor if it was taken outside intact, and a desire to avoid confrontation with protesters massed outside the building, the monument was put into storage within the building.

On November 13, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, in a unanimous opinion, removed an unapologetic Moore from the office of Chief Justice because, according to Court of the Judiciary Presiding Judge William Thompson, "he chief justice placed himself above the law." In closing arguments, the Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system" and "What message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it."

Political life outside the judiciary

Moore was considered as a possible candidate for the Constitution Party in the 2004 presidential election, but did not pursue their nomination.

In 2004, along with Herb Titus, Moore was an original drafter of the Constitution Restoration Act which sought to remove federal courts' jurisdiction over a government official or entity's "acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government," and provided for the impeachment of judges who failed to do so. The bill was introduced in both houses of Congress in 2004 and then reintroduced in 2005.

Candidacy for Governor

On October 3, 2005, Moore announced that he would to run against Republican incumbent Bob Riley in the gubernatorial election of 2006. On the campaign trail, Moore referred to what he believed was the stand that the American founding fathers made for the biblical basis for law, including statements that he felt extolled the supremacy of God as the basis for successful government. Despite Moore's predictions that his initial low polling numbers were inaccurate, Riley won the primary by a 2-to-1 margin.

In his concession speech, Moore told supporters that "God's will has been done". He later said that he will not support Riley in the general election because of Riley's acceptance of campaign contributions from political action committees.

Journalism

On July 26, 2006 WorldNetDaily announced that Moore would be joining the publication as a columnist. In his debut column, Moore argued that God is the "sovereign source of our law," echoing his language and reasoning used in the failed Constitution Restoration Act.

Writings

So Help Me God: The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and the Battle For Religious Freedom (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005) ISBN 0805432639
Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? by Mark Sutherland 2005. ISBN 0975345567 Features conservative perspectives on the United States judicial system from Mark Sutherland, US Attorney General Ed Meese, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Dave Meyer, Phyllis Schlafly, the Honorable Howard Phillips, Alan Sears, William Federer, Ben DuPre, Rev. Rick Scarborough, David Gibbs, Mathew Staver, Don Feder, Roy Moore, James Dobson and Herb Titus.

References

Moore: I've kept my oath' CNN, January 8, 2004
Judge Roy Moore Introduces Constitution Restoration Act 2004 WAFF News, February 13, 2004
Judge Roy Moore debuts as columnist] WorldNetDaily July 26 2006.
Will America choose to acknowledge God? Roy Moore. WorldNetDaily, July 26 2006

External links