Commandments Fray Goes Beyond Alabama

KNEEL AND APPEAL: Protesters Larry Ellard and Jessica Moore (l.) prayed at the federal court in Montgomery last week.

Montgomery, Alabama - August 27, 2003 - The Christian Science Monitor - By Glynn Wilson - Commandments fray goes beyond Alabama

MONTGOMERY, ALA. – Jesse Truax, wearing a crown of thorns, is grimacing from the prickle as sweat wends down his cheeks in the sweltering heat. After a daylong bus ride, he's here all the way from Eustis, Fla., with a group of 33 from his Baptist church, vowing to "stay as long as it takes" to keep the sacred Ten Commandments monument here in the rotunda of the judicial building. Though the legal scales keep tilting toward the tablets' removal, Mr. Truax is unfazed, and that crown is planted firmly on his head.
The battle is unfolding on the street where Jefferson Davis declared war in 1865, where George Wallace fought for segregation and where Martin Luther King Jr. marched to end it. Now it's a onetime Sunday school teacher who has risen to prominence for his stand on the Bible in the courtroom - and drawn a crowd of staunch defenders, opportunists, and media to his stand of pious rebellion.

But as the frenzy continues and Judge Moore staunchly refuses to have his monument moved, the legacy of "Roy's Rock" is fluid: Will it go down in history as one man's small-time politico-religious circus? Or is it a nascent national movement, the catalyst for a galvanized Christian right that will ripple more broadly - and rancorously - through the American justice system?

"To people who have strong religious convictions, these things become very tangible symbols of what's wrong with the country," says John Green, a political analyst at the University of Akron and director of the Bliss Institute. "This could indeed spark a renewal of activism. But more importantly, it could bring a fresh supply of activists."

In fact, Moore's monument parallels moves under way by a group called Faith and Action, which has had about 400 marble slabs and carved tables installed in public places political offices. Lawsuits, of course, have followed, and in most cases, courts have ruled against the displays.

Experts warn the issue itself - stone tablets in public - is narrow and perishable. To compare Moore's stand on the courthouse steps to a historical moment such as Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door before thousands is "ludicrous," says Dean Culpepper Clark of the University of Alabama College of Communication, author of a book on Wallace. "Judge Moore claims to represent people who are in no way oppressed," Mr. Clark says.

Most educated Alabamians consider Moore a zealot out of touch with mainstream Christianity, says Clark, who suspects they'll abandon Moore as he flouts the system and defies judges.

Still, he adds, the galvanization of the Christian right "could ripple out a good bit."

'You can't be a judge and defy a court'

The crowd's devotion, says Clark, is somewhat baffling: Moore's followers have braved the heat on marble stairs, even slept there for several nights, when conservative Christian Republicans control the White House, both houses of Congress, the Alabama governor's mansion, the state Legislature, and the state Supreme Court. But many of the faithful feel besieged all the same - in part by rulings such as the Texas sodomy case. That unease helps make this a galvanizing time for the Christian right.

Unless the US Supreme Court agrees to hear the case - unlikely since it rejected Moore's petition for a stay - the fight will soon end. Moore has until the end of September to file his petition to be heard. If the high court doesn't step in, Moore could run for office or, as Cohen suggests, fight as an outsider, on the model of Martin Luther King Jr. "You can't be a judge and defy a court order," Cohen says. The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, charged with looking into Moore's possible contempt of court, may have to remove him from office.

Many of those in power have no quibble with the commandments, even in a courthouse. But most, except Moore's followers, agree that when the highest courts rule, they should be obeyed, says Richard Cohen, executive director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of the civil liberties groups that brought the case against the tablets.

A new legal team assembled for the appeal has filed a lawsuit in federal court with a hearing set for Wednesday. Legal observers say it's an attempt to change the case from one about a religious display crossing the church-state divide to one about Moore's right of free speech and religious expression. It's a novel tactic - and one that may buy more time in the limelight.

The glass doors to the judicial building are locked, after a group of protesters refused to leave at closing last week when all eight members of the state Supreme Court voted to suspend Moore and comply with the federal court's order to remove the slabs from display. Protesters dropped to their knees and prayed.

They were carried out.

Federal District Judge Myron Thompson imposed daily fines of $5,000 on the state for contempt of his ruling - a decision upheld this month by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. For that, Judge Thompson has received death threats. Morris Dees, founder and director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who conducted a tough cross-examination of Moore, is also staying out of public view due to threats on his life. And security around Montgomery is high, in anticipation of violence from Moore's followers upon the monument's removal.

The faces of protest and ridicule

Near the judicial building here, protests are varied. Sunday night, one man climbed up on the building. Police took him away hours later. Across the street from the court, protesters - atheists, Jews, gays, and others - demanded the monument be removed. "We came here to show that a majority of Alabamians want the monument removed now," says Larry Darby, state director for American Atheists. "Roy Moore is a renegade judge, a disgrace to the bench and the bar."

Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, a conservative Republican who's supported Moore in the past, tried to hire the same company to remove the monument that helped Justice Moore sneak it into the courthouse in the middle of the night. The company refused. The plan now is to move the 5,300-pound granite slabs to a closet, then to a less controversial site, such as a church.

Moore wiped sweat from his face during a statement Monday and quoted Patrick Henry: "Should I abandon my conscience now?" Protesters, mostly clad in shorts, shouted "No," as Moore and his blue-suited entourage left for a limousine.

.. http://www.csmonitor.com/cgi-bin/aol/2003/0827/p03s01-ussc.html

The Associated Press - Montgomery, Ala. -- A chorus of demonstrators joined an irate man in screaming "Put it back!" Wednesday morning after a monument of the Ten Commandments (search) was wheeled away from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

"Get your hands off our God, God haters!" yelled the wildly gesturing, red-faced man who initiated the chanting. 

Workers used a dolly to move the 5,280-pound granite marker from the rotunda to another,
undisclosed place in the courthouse building. 

Meanwhile, a Wednesday afternoon hearing to consider a lawsuit to keep the monument in the
rotunda was canceled. 

The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Mobile on behalf of a Christian radio talk show host and a pastor, says forced removal of the monument would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion. 

Christian Defense Coalition (search) Director Patrick Mahoney told the crowd of demonstrators that he wasn't told where the monument had been taken. 

Because of its size and weight, the marker was presumably moved to another location on the ground floor of the building. 

Mahoney said the monument would not be covered, and that he would be allowed inside to see it once it was moved. Mahoney said he was informed of the plans by building manager Graham George.

Mahoney didn't know whether the monument's new location would be accessible to the public.

The federal court had said the monument could be in a private place in the building but not in the highly visible spot in the rotunda directly across from the building's entrance.

Protest organizers asked the crowd outside not to rush the building or do anything else except pray. Some people seemed to be listening, with dozens kneeling, bowing or lying face-down in prayer in front of the judicial building and on the steps before and after the monument's removal. 

The marker was wheeled away in a matter of minutes.

A federal judge in Montgomery ruled last year that the monument, which Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (search) installed two years ago, violates the Constitution's ban on government promotion of religion and ordered its removal by Aug. 20. The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear
Moore's appeal.

 But [Judge] Moore refused to comply. Eight associate justices voted Aug. 21 to remove the monument, and Moore was suspended the next day.

Attorney General Bill Pryor, defending the associate justices, filed a motion Tuesday afternoon to dismiss the latest lawsuit, saying the Mobile court lacks jurisdiction and the complaint lacks merit. 

About 150 monument supporters marched on Pryor's office Tuesday, demanding he resign for supporting the associate justices' decision. Seven representatives were allowed inside to meet with Pryor's chief deputy for about 20 minutes. The rest remained outside, chanting, "Resign now! Resign now!" 

Gatherings of pro-monument demonstrators outside the judicial building have grown each day in the past week to at times number in the hundreds. 

People seeking removal of the monument from its public site had said they were grateful that it was finally being moved, a week after the deadline set by a federal judge. 

"This is a tremendous victory for the rule of law and respect for religious diversity," the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said before the monument was rolled out of the rotunda. "Perhaps Roy Moore will soon leave the bench and move into the pulpit, which he seems better suited for."

Lynne's organization was among groups suing to remove Moore's monument, which he installed
without telling the other eight Supreme Court justices. 

Demonstrators promised to keep up their protests of the removal.  

"If it takes 75 years to reclaim this land for righteousness, God find us and our children and our children's children ready," said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the national clergy council.

 

 

 

CHIEF JUSTICE ROY MOORE'S LAST STAND

 

 

The New York Times, 8.28.2003 - Chief Justice Roy Moore's embarrassing defiance of federal law ended abruptly yesterday, when a moving crew rolled his Ten Commandments monument out of the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building. It is unfortunate that this confrontation, which attracted a national audience, has been seen as a showdown between Alabama and the federal government. In fact, many of the heroes are Alabamians, and many who were the most derelict in defending the Constitution and federal power work for the federal government.

Chief Justice Moore's claim that federal law did not apply to him was a bad imitation of Gov. George Wallace's infamous stand against integration at the University of Alabama in 1963. But this time Alabama's legal establishment came down decisively on the side of the Constitution and the rule of law. After Chief Justice Moore lost an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, his colleagues on the Alabama Supreme Court voted unanimously to overrule him and ordered the removal of the monument. A day later, Alabama's Judicial Inquiry Commission charged Chief Justice Moore with violating ethical canons by disobeying a federal court order and suspended him with pay.

 

Alabama's attorney general, William Pryor Jr., also argued for the monument's removal. Some of Chief Justice Moore's supporters charge that Mr. Pryor, who had been a strong defender of the monument, switched sides to curry favor with Senate Democrats in Washington, who have filibustered his nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, the same court that ordered that the monument be removed. Mr. Pryor says that he believes the monument is legal, but that the 11th Circuit's order must be obeyed.

 

While Alabama's legal system was rising to the challenge, key federal officials were ducking their own responsibilities. The House of Representatives passed a lawless bill to prevent federal funds from being used to enforce the court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument. Attorney General John Ashcroft, whose duty it is to uphold the Constitution and federal power, was silent in the face of Chief Justice Moore's assault on the Constitution. Mr. Ashcroft is touring the country to assure the American people that the USA Patriot Act does not deprive them of their constitutional rights. He would have more credibility if he stood up for the Constitution when it was attacked by demagogues like Chief Justice Moore. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/28/opinion/28THU2.html?th

 

Workers Remove Ten Commandments

Kyle Wingfield AP    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Aug. 27) - A 2 1/2-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments that became a lightning rod in a legal storm over church and state was wheeled from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building Wednesday as protesters knelt, prayed and chanted, ``Put it back!'' Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who installed the engraved set of tablets two years ago and risked his career to keep it there after a federal judge ordered it removed, said he would take his fight to the U.S. Supreme Court. ``It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge,'' he said. To the dismay of scores of supporters who had held a weeklong vigil outside the front doors, the 5,280-pound monument was jacked up by a work crew and taken away to a back room with a heavy-duty hydraulic hand truck. Building officials did not immediately say where the monument would be stored or whether the public would ever be allowed to see it. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson of Montgomery had ruled last year that the monument violates the Constitution's ban on government endorsement of a religious doctrine. ``This is a tremendous victory for the rule of law and respect for religious diversity,'' said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. ``Perhaps Roy Moore will soon leave the bench and move into the pulpit, which he seems better suited for.'' As the monument left public view, a federal judge in Mobile dismissed a lawsuit that had been filed this week in a last-ditch effort to block its removal. The long-running dispute has galvanized evangelical Christians and conservatives in this Bible Belt state and around the country. Asked about President Bush's view of the controversy, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said: ``It is important that we respect our laws and our courts. In some instances the courts have ruled that the posting of Ten Commandments is OK. In other circumstances they have ruled that it's not OK. In either case, there is always opportunity for appeal of courts' decisions.'' Outside the Alabama courthouse, demonstrators lay face-down on the pavement, knelt in prayer on the steps, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord's Prayer. Four men linked arms and chanted, ``Put it back!'' Hundreds took part in the vigil, and organizers said the protest would not end with the monument's removal. ``They can move it out of view, but they can't move it out of our hearts,'' said Rick Moser, 47, of Woodstock, Ga. Protest organizer Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, said it is critical for the supporters to remain after the monument's removal to ``stand with Christ and against judicial tyranny.'' Moore was suspended by a judicial ethics panel for defying Thompson's order to move the monument. The federal judge had threatened to impose $5,000 daily fines on the state, and Moore's eight fellow justices on the Supreme Court overruled Moore and ordered the monument taken away. Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, a Republican, defended the court-ordered removal of the monument and is overseeing the prosecution of Moore on the ethics charge, which will be heard before the seven-member Court of the Judiciary. It has the power to discipline and remove judges. Moore contends the federal judge has no authority to tell Alabama's chief justice to remove the monument. Republican Gov. Bob Riley said in a statement that he hopes the monument's removal is ``brief and temporary,'' with the U.S. Supreme Court ordering it moved back. He said he will file court papers supporting Moore. Copyright 2003 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.