Alabama Justices Order Ten Commandments Monument Removed
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN with MARK J. PRENDERGAST
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Aug. 21 - Chief Justice Roy Moore was overruled by his eight associates on the Alabama Supreme Court today when they ordered the removal of ``Roy's Rock'' from the lobby of their building here.
Justice Moore, who has gained a reputation for his defiance of a federal court on the issue, bristled at the rebuke.
``I was very disappointed with my colleagues on the court,'' he said in remarks delivered this afternoon on the courthouse steps and broadcast by cable news channels. ``But let me assure you - the fight to defend our constitutional right to acknowledge God must and will continue.''
Justice Moore vowed that ``very soon'' he would petition the Supreme Court of the United States to ``resolve clearly our inalienable rights to acknowledge God under the First Amendment.''
As he has before, Justice Moore offered as justification for his position the argument that secular law is based upon Judeo-Christian tradition. ``To do my duty, I must acknowledge God,'' said. ``That's what this case is bout.''
Justice Moore also had harsh words for Judge Myron Thompson of Federal District Court, who had ordered the commandments removed. ``Not only does Judge Thompson put himself above the law,'' Justice Moore said, ``but above God as well.''
Earlier, writing that they were ``bound by solemn oath to follow the law, whether they agree or disagree with it,'' the court's associate justices said in a signed statement that the State Supreme Court must abide by the federal court order mandating the removal of the 5,280-pound monument of the Ten Commandments that Justice Moore had installed one night in 2001.
Judge Thompson had ordered Justice Moore to have the monument removed by midnight last night, saying the granite block, known as Roy's Rock, violated the separation of church and state.
The associate justices, who acted before Justice Moore arrived for work this morning, ordered their building's manager to erect a partition to screen the monument from public view in the lobby, which was done. But when Justice Moore arrived, according to people who have been in contact with him today, he ordered the manager to take it down and threatened to jail the other justices.
Soon after, the state attorney general, Bill Pryor, announced that he was siding with the associate justices and that the monument must be removed from public view.
But it was not certain how or when that would be accomplished. Under the federal court order, the monument can remain in the building, as long as it is not in public view. But moving it to a space not accessible to the public may be troublesome. Experts have said the monument's 5,200 pounds is too heavy for the building's elevator and even some flooring.
Justice Moore's supporters remained as defiant as he was.
``We're ready to lay down our lives,'' Rusty Thomas, a minister from Waco, Tex., said today. Mr. Thomas, along with many other of Justice Moore's supporters, denounced the action by the other judges today and called them ``Judases.''
``What they did was against the lord,'' Mr. Thomas said. ``They betrayed a righteous man.''
Justice Moore's monument has been a magnet for Christian activists, and as Wednesday night wore on toward the federal court's midnight deadline, its powers seemed to increase.
As the clock struck 12, the crowd that had assembled in front of the courthouse burst into ``God Bless America.'' The muggy plaza was clogged with dozens of little girls wearing Jesus T-shirts, bearded men with thick arms and Confederate flags on their backs, black people, white people, the young, the old, the in between, a man who had walked from Texas dressed in a monk's frock and another who had driven from San Diego in a red truck with a sign that said ``Shame on America.''
They were here to make sure that when the deadline elapsed, no federal officers stormed the courthouse and wheeled away the monument.
On Wednesday, some of Justice Moore's supporters were arrested, including 66-year-old Karen Kennedy, who was handcuffed in her wheelchair. By midnight, she was back. And a hero.
``Let's hear it for this woman,'' yelled the Rev. Pat Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition.
``That's right,'' Ms. Kennedy said from the courthouse steps. ``I was cuffed for God.''
Justice Moore was nowhere to be seen Wednesday night, though several hours earlier , he said, ``If they want to get the commandments, they're going to have to get me first'' - the sort of statement that has led some supporters to dub him ``the Moses of Alabama.''
But there may not be any apocalyptic finish. Federal officials have decided that fines, not force, are the best way to deal with the monument.
On Wednesday, Justice Moore lost a last-ditch appeal to the United States Supreme Court, hurtling him head-on into a conflict with a federal judge who has threatened to make him pay $5,000 for every day that the Ten Commandments remain in public view.
Detractors say the whole thing smells like Alabama's obstinacy of yesteryear, of the lost battles for states' rights in the 1960's.
``He's been even more flamboyant and stubborn than George Wallace when he made his stand in the schoolhouse door,'' said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The justice's defiance always seems to invigorate his supporters, and on Wednesday hundreds streamed into Montgomery to chant, kneel, pray and cry on the steps of the state's highest court, shouting out the Almighty's name and at times lying on their bellies to block passers-by.
``This is not about a monument,'' Mr. Mahoney bellowed. ``This is about resisting tyranny.''
``Amen,'' the crowd boomed.
Gene Chapman, the man who walked the 700 miles from Austin, Tex., said, ``This is a culture war.''
Then Mr. Chapman added, in a thin voice: ``I'd go to jail. Happily.''
On top of the long walk, he has been on a 10-day hunger strike.
On Wednesday evening, the police took away more than 15 people, some of them elderly, after they refused to leave the monument's side when the building closed.
Judge Myron H. Thompson of Federal District Court, who has presided over this case brought by several civil liberties groups, tried to take the path of least resistance. It was nine months ago, on Nov. 18, that Judge Thompson issued his own commandment: Thou shalt remove thy monument.
Judge Thompson ruled that placing a 4-foot-tall stone block of the Ten Commandments in the court's lobby was ``nothing less than an obtrusive year-round religious display.''
``The only way to miss the religious or nonsecular appearance of the monument would be to walk through the Alabama State Judicial Building with one's eyes closed,'' he wrote.
His ruling had a tone of outrage to it. But Judge Thompson was patient. He granted Justice Moore until midnight Wednesday to comply with the removal order. After several failed appeals, that ruling stands.
Judge Thompson is expected to call a hearing, possibly as early as today, to decide the next course of action. Justice Moore's opponents say that while the federal court may have the authority to levy fines, it could be difficult collecting them.
``What's important here,'' Mr. Lynn said, ``is that we send the message that you can't have every judge obeying only the rulings they like.''
Legal experts say Justice Moore's views are on the fringe.
``This is not a close case,'' said Martin Redish, a Northwestern University law professor. ``This is a situation where both on its face and from the context, it's quite clear that the Ten Commandments are being used as a clear message of governmental support for a religious institution.''
Alabama's attorney general, Bill Pryor, a conservative legal figure who has been nominated for a circuit court judgeship, has tried to walk a fine line.
He issued a statement saying: ``Although I believe the Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of our legal heritage and that they can be displayed constitutionally as they are in the U.S. Supreme Court building, I will not violate nor assist any person in the violation of this injunction.''
Moses and the Ten Commandments appear on a frieze at the United States Supreme Court as part of a display of historical law figures. The courts have consistently ruled that it is acceptable to show the Ten Commandments if they are part of a larger historical display. Justice Moore, however, refused to place any other exhibits alongside his Ten Commandments.
Theoretically, the governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, a Republican, could order public safety officers to remove the monument if the state starts incurring fines. Such a debt would be especially awkward for Mr. Riley, who has been pushing a tax increase that he says is necessary to save Alabama from bankruptcy.
So far, though, the governor has supported Justice Moore, saying, ``I have a deep and abiding belief that there is nothing wrong or unconstitutional about the public display of the Ten Commandments.''
Today's action by the Alabama Supreme Court had been foreshadowed by Associate Justice Tom Woodall, who had said a majority of the judges could vote to remove Justice Moore's administrative power over the building and have the monument carted away.
``That has been discussed,'' Justice Woodall said. ``A lot.''
But while they did vote to move the monument, they did not seek to strip Justice Moore of any of his administrative powers.
Opposing Justice Moore will take courage. He is one of the most popular politicians in the state, rising from obscurity 10 years ago after he hung a homemade rosewood plaque of the Ten Commandments in his county courtroom. He believes that America's laws get their authority from the Bible, and has even compared himself to Moses and Daniel.
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