Chief Injustice

FoxNews reports: Moore Remains Defiant, Supporters Sue to Keep Ten Commandments.

Espousing his reverence of God above "earthly authorities," Alabama's Chief Justice Roy Moore said removing the Ten Commandments monument from the state judicial building is just plain wrong. [...]

Moore installed the monument in the building's rotunda two years ago, and was suspended by a state judicial ethics panel last week for disobeying a federal court order to remove the 5,300-pound granite marker.

Last week, Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit had good entry about the ruling to remove the monument: Another Victory for Anti-idiotarianism. InstaPundit reader Bill Reece commented on the man at the center of the controversy:

Justice Moore has managed to join a long line of elected officials who have publicly humiliated my home state of Alabama by populist political pandering. Moore could care less about the Ten Commandments. He was considered to be, at best, an obscure and second rate trial judge until he first used the Ten Commandments in his courtroom to gain notoriety for himself. After pursuing the exact same "crusade" he has just completed, he leveraged the publicity he had received into support from the religious right in Alabama, allowing him to get elected Chief Justice over a far more qualified candidate who is presently a member of the Ala. Supreme Court. Anyone familiar with the law on this issue, regardless of whether they agree with it, knows that this was a losing proposition. Moore knew it, but his crusade was "cheap" for him because the taxpayers of this impoverished State would bear the costs while he reaped the public notoriety. It was all about furthering his political ambitions.

Reece also said that Justice Moore went behind the backs of his fellow Supreme Court justices and erected the monument in the middle of the night without prior notice or consent.

Another InstaPundit reader, Peter Ingemi, added:

In these post 9/11 days we have much to fear from groups of Americans willing to violate the law and court orders on the grounds that "God wants us to do it," and I suspect that the next group that does this will have a response much less peaceful.

Martin Lindeskog at EGO noted this letter to the editor by Scott Miller in The Washington Post.

[C]ontrary to what Mr. Moore claims, no one is preventing him from worshipping or acknowledging his version of God. He simply can't do it in his capacity as a representative of the government. He can stand on street corners and preach to his heart's content. He just can't use the government imprimatur to push his personal religious agenda.

UPDATE: FoxNews reports: Movers Haul Ten Commandments Away.

An irate protester repeatedly screamed "Put it back!" as a Ten Commandments monument was wheeled away Wednesday from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

Another man tried to calm the protester, who was angrily shouting "God haters" at the people who wanted the controversial monument removed.

"Get your hands off our God, God haters!" the red-faced man yelled.

The 5,280-pound granite marker was hauled on a dolly by a Georgia moving company from the public view area to another, undisclosed place in the courthouse complex.

Posted by Forkum at August 27, 2003 07:56 AM