Post by Maverick on Nov 12, 2003 18:49:26 GMT -5
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By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: November 12, 2003
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Nov. 12 — Alabama's chief justice, Roy S. Moore, appeared in front of a special judicial court today to face charges that could lead to his ouster from the bench for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments that he had installed in the rotunda of the State Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Moore, who was suspended in August, is accused of six separate ethical breaches, including failing to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and bringing "the judicial office into disrepute."
Alabama's attorney general, Bill Pryor, who once supported Justice Moore and had even helped with his legal defense, urged today that the chief justice be removed from the bench "based on his flagrant and totally unrepentant behavior."
In a written brief, Mr. Pryor said that Justice Moore's refusal to obey a federal court's order this summer demanding that he remove the 5,280-pound monument from the Supreme Court building was akin to "the rule of the jungle.
"More importantly," Mr. Pryor added, "the chief justice has never expressed remorse for the devastating impact of his actions on our judicial system — far from it."
In court today, prosecutors showed videotapes of fiery press conferences that the chief justice had held on the courthouse steps in which he refused to move the monument — despite a federal court ruling that the display violated the separation of church and state — and declared, "I would do it again."
Justice Moore's lawyers argued that he should not be punished for disobeying what they characterized as "an unlawful order," and they likened his position to the military code of justice, which does not punish soldiers for disobeying orders that are unlawful or improper.
"If the attorney general is to prosecute the chief justice, he must prove that the order was lawful," Justice Moore's lawyers said in a pretrial brief. "When a federal court tells the chief justice that he may not perform his duties as required under law, it is the federal district court judge who is violating the law."
The controversy again drew a huge crowd to the Alabama Supreme Court building in a scene today that was reminiscent of the revival-like protests that lasted two weeks this summer.
Some people paced the courthouse steps holding signs that read "Demand the rock." Others blew curled rams' horns as a call to arms, and men in monks' robes carried sets of the holy tablets outside the courthouse.
On Aug. 22, Justice Moore was suspended from the bench with pay pending the outcome of this trial, which is being conducted by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. Now he faces ouster, but only if the nine judges on the judicial court unanimously rule to remove him.
The court is a mix of Democrats and Republicans, judges, lawyers and lay people, with six of nine members holding elected office. Many analysts think because of that — and Justice Moore's popularity in Alabama — it is unlikely the chief justice will be removed.
"Roy Moore remains very popular and it would be a huge risk for someone to be remembered as the one who voted against the Ten Commandments judge," said William Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Alabama.
Moore also has history on his side. In the judicial court's 30-year history, only three judges have been removed. The court does not have the power to permanently keep a judge off the bench, and the last Alabama judge to be thrown out of office was re-elected the next year to the very same seat.
Justice Moore has said the monument, inscribed with the biblical commandments and etched with wise words from the nation's founding fathers, all referencing God, is a way to honor the biblical underpinning of America's laws.
But civil liberties groups, which, among others, sued, argue that the public display of the monument violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits the government from supporting religion.
This month, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear Justice Moore's appeal of the lower-court ruling against the monument, a decision that had been foreshadowed by the Supreme Court's refusal this summer to grant an emergency stay barring state officials from removing the monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building.
Justice Moore has been closely associated with the Ten Commandments through his career on the Alabama bench. He hung a hand-carved plaque depicting the commandments in his courtroom when he was a circuit court judge in Gadsden, generating controversy and lawsuits. In 2000, he successfully campaigned for chief justice as the "Ten Commandments judge" and installed his monument the next year.
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By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: November 12, 2003
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Nov. 12 — Alabama's chief justice, Roy S. Moore, appeared in front of a special judicial court today to face charges that could lead to his ouster from the bench for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments that he had installed in the rotunda of the State Supreme Court.
Chief Justice Moore, who was suspended in August, is accused of six separate ethical breaches, including failing to uphold the integrity of the judiciary and bringing "the judicial office into disrepute."
Alabama's attorney general, Bill Pryor, who once supported Justice Moore and had even helped with his legal defense, urged today that the chief justice be removed from the bench "based on his flagrant and totally unrepentant behavior."
In a written brief, Mr. Pryor said that Justice Moore's refusal to obey a federal court's order this summer demanding that he remove the 5,280-pound monument from the Supreme Court building was akin to "the rule of the jungle.
"More importantly," Mr. Pryor added, "the chief justice has never expressed remorse for the devastating impact of his actions on our judicial system — far from it."
In court today, prosecutors showed videotapes of fiery press conferences that the chief justice had held on the courthouse steps in which he refused to move the monument — despite a federal court ruling that the display violated the separation of church and state — and declared, "I would do it again."
Justice Moore's lawyers argued that he should not be punished for disobeying what they characterized as "an unlawful order," and they likened his position to the military code of justice, which does not punish soldiers for disobeying orders that are unlawful or improper.
"If the attorney general is to prosecute the chief justice, he must prove that the order was lawful," Justice Moore's lawyers said in a pretrial brief. "When a federal court tells the chief justice that he may not perform his duties as required under law, it is the federal district court judge who is violating the law."
The controversy again drew a huge crowd to the Alabama Supreme Court building in a scene today that was reminiscent of the revival-like protests that lasted two weeks this summer.
Some people paced the courthouse steps holding signs that read "Demand the rock." Others blew curled rams' horns as a call to arms, and men in monks' robes carried sets of the holy tablets outside the courthouse.
On Aug. 22, Justice Moore was suspended from the bench with pay pending the outcome of this trial, which is being conducted by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. Now he faces ouster, but only if the nine judges on the judicial court unanimously rule to remove him.
The court is a mix of Democrats and Republicans, judges, lawyers and lay people, with six of nine members holding elected office. Many analysts think because of that — and Justice Moore's popularity in Alabama — it is unlikely the chief justice will be removed.
"Roy Moore remains very popular and it would be a huge risk for someone to be remembered as the one who voted against the Ten Commandments judge," said William Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Alabama.
Moore also has history on his side. In the judicial court's 30-year history, only three judges have been removed. The court does not have the power to permanently keep a judge off the bench, and the last Alabama judge to be thrown out of office was re-elected the next year to the very same seat.
Justice Moore has said the monument, inscribed with the biblical commandments and etched with wise words from the nation's founding fathers, all referencing God, is a way to honor the biblical underpinning of America's laws.
But civil liberties groups, which, among others, sued, argue that the public display of the monument violates the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits the government from supporting religion.
This month, the United States Supreme Court refused to hear Justice Moore's appeal of the lower-court ruling against the monument, a decision that had been foreshadowed by the Supreme Court's refusal this summer to grant an emergency stay barring state officials from removing the monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building.
Justice Moore has been closely associated with the Ten Commandments through his career on the Alabama bench. He hung a hand-carved plaque depicting the commandments in his courtroom when he was a circuit court judge in Gadsden, generating controversy and lawsuits. In 2000, he successfully campaigned for chief justice as the "Ten Commandments judge" and installed his monument the next year.
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