Post by AuntieSocial on Nov 14, 2003 10:39:24 GMT -5
Alabama Panel Ousts Judge Over Ten Commandments Monument
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By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: November 14, 2003
Publication: NYTimes
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Nov. 13 — A special ethics panel on Thursday ousted Alabama's chief justice, Roy S. Moore, who was lionized by the religious right for his refusal to remove a titanic monument of the Ten Commandments he had put in the lobby of the state judicial building.
The head of the ethics panel, William Thompson, said he and his colleagues were given little choice because "the chief justice placed himself above the law" by defying a federal court order to remove the monument.
Moreover, Judge Thompson said, "the chief justice showed no signs of contrition for his actions."
Indeed, just minutes later, Mr. Moore strode out of the courthouse into a crush of his supporters and announced, "I have absolutely no regrets."
"We fought a good fight," he said. "We kept the faith. But the battle is not over. The battle to acknowledge God is about to rage across the country."
The crowd exploded in cheers and chanted, "Roy Moore for Senate! Roy Moore for president!"
Mr. Moore, whose popularity seems to swell at each turn in this controversy, was coy about his next move. But he implied that he would appeal.
That "brings on a whole host of delightfully interesting legal issues," because the appeal would go to Mr. Moore's former colleagues on the State Supreme Court, said John Wilkerson, a spokesman for the ethics panel.
Ever since 1995, when Mr. Moore rose from obscurity after he was sued by civil liberties groups for placing a homemade plaque of the Ten Commandments on the wall of his rural Alabama courtroom, his supporters have tried to paint the issue as God versus the unbelievers and Alabama versus "the feds."
But in the end, it was a panel of Alabamians from across the state — eight men and one woman, Democrats and Republicans, lawyers, judges, a county commissioner and the director of a nonprofit organization — who ruled that Mr. Moore had to go. And only after opening the proceedings with a prayer.
"Anything short of removal would only serve to set up another confrontation that would ultimately bring us back to where we are today," the panel said in its decision.
The verdict stunned the hushed courtroom over which he once presided. As soon as it was read, Mr. Moore's shoulders drooped. His wife winced. His supporters let out a gasp. In the marbled corridors outside, shouting matches broke out between friends of the ousted judge and a handful of atheists.
"Thanks for destroying our country," one man said to Larry Darby, president of the Atheist Law Center in Montgomery.
"Go to hell!" another man told Mr. Darby, bumping him.
"I can't," Mr. Darby said, straightening himself. "Hell doesn't exist."
Mr. Moore remains popular in Alabama, though federal courts have consistently ruled that his display of the Ten Commandments, a 5,280-pound slab of carved granite that was positioned in the middle of the building's rotunda, violated constitutional guarantees of separation of church and state. After a federal deadline elapsed in August, Mr. Moore's fellow justices overruled him and moved the monument to a storage room, closed to the public, where it remained on Thursday.
That action nearly provoked a riot, and many analysts thought that when it came time for the nine-member ethics panel to rule on Mr. Moore's fate, members would allow him to keep his job because of the political risks of removing him. Members of the panel are appointed by various Alabama legal organizations, the governor and lieutenant governor, and five hold elected office. The panel can remove a judge only by a unanimous vote.
"I'm really surprised," said William Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Alabama. "Usually, when you get a group of nine people, at least one will be thinking not so much of doing the right thing but saving his own skin. This took courage. I don't see how voting against the Ten Commandments judge could help anybody's political career in any way."
William Pryor Jr., Alabama's attorney general, was the man in the middle. Up until this summer, Mr. Pryor, a conservative, had supported Mr. Moore, speaking at Ten Commandments rallies and assigning lawyers from his office to help with Mr. Moore's legal defense.
But after Mr. Moore began losing his appeals and Mr. Pryor was nominated by President Bush for an appellate judgeship, the attorney general became one of Mr. Moore's most strident critics. He led the prosecution of Mr. Moore, who was accused of six ethical breaches, from failing to comply with the law to bringing "the judicial office into disrepute."
Senate Republicans are having little luck in pushing Mr. Pryor's nomination past determined Democratic opposition, but today, he radiated triumph as he cut through a crowd in the Montgomery courthouse.
"I did my duty," Mr. Pryor said. "I will lose no sleep over this."
Many of Mr. Moore's supporters were outraged that an unelected panel had removed an elected justice.
"They're undoing a democratic process here," said Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. "It smacks of third-world countries. It smacks of dictatorship."
If Mr. Moore appeals, his fellow justices are expected to recuse themselves. If that happens, it is not clear if Republican governor Bob Riley would appoint alternate judges or if the State Supreme Court itself would select a panel to hear Mr. Moore's case.
Either way, Mr. Moore can run for chief justice again. The panel that removed Mr. Moore lacks the authority to permanently keep a judge off the bench.
The last Alabama judge who was ousted, a probate judge found guilty of financial fraud in 1999, won back his seat in an election the next year.
In the meantime, it is up to Gov. Riley to appoint a replacement chief justice to finish Mr. Moore's term, which ends in 2006.
According to Cynthia Gray, director of the Center for Judicial Ethics in Chicago, no other chief justice in recent history has been ousted from the bench for ethics violations.
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Click here to read the story on it original page
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: November 14, 2003
Publication: NYTimes
MONTGOMERY, Ala., Nov. 13 — A special ethics panel on Thursday ousted Alabama's chief justice, Roy S. Moore, who was lionized by the religious right for his refusal to remove a titanic monument of the Ten Commandments he had put in the lobby of the state judicial building.
The head of the ethics panel, William Thompson, said he and his colleagues were given little choice because "the chief justice placed himself above the law" by defying a federal court order to remove the monument.
Moreover, Judge Thompson said, "the chief justice showed no signs of contrition for his actions."
Indeed, just minutes later, Mr. Moore strode out of the courthouse into a crush of his supporters and announced, "I have absolutely no regrets."
"We fought a good fight," he said. "We kept the faith. But the battle is not over. The battle to acknowledge God is about to rage across the country."
The crowd exploded in cheers and chanted, "Roy Moore for Senate! Roy Moore for president!"
Mr. Moore, whose popularity seems to swell at each turn in this controversy, was coy about his next move. But he implied that he would appeal.
That "brings on a whole host of delightfully interesting legal issues," because the appeal would go to Mr. Moore's former colleagues on the State Supreme Court, said John Wilkerson, a spokesman for the ethics panel.
Ever since 1995, when Mr. Moore rose from obscurity after he was sued by civil liberties groups for placing a homemade plaque of the Ten Commandments on the wall of his rural Alabama courtroom, his supporters have tried to paint the issue as God versus the unbelievers and Alabama versus "the feds."
But in the end, it was a panel of Alabamians from across the state — eight men and one woman, Democrats and Republicans, lawyers, judges, a county commissioner and the director of a nonprofit organization — who ruled that Mr. Moore had to go. And only after opening the proceedings with a prayer.
"Anything short of removal would only serve to set up another confrontation that would ultimately bring us back to where we are today," the panel said in its decision.
The verdict stunned the hushed courtroom over which he once presided. As soon as it was read, Mr. Moore's shoulders drooped. His wife winced. His supporters let out a gasp. In the marbled corridors outside, shouting matches broke out between friends of the ousted judge and a handful of atheists.
"Thanks for destroying our country," one man said to Larry Darby, president of the Atheist Law Center in Montgomery.
"Go to hell!" another man told Mr. Darby, bumping him.
"I can't," Mr. Darby said, straightening himself. "Hell doesn't exist."
Mr. Moore remains popular in Alabama, though federal courts have consistently ruled that his display of the Ten Commandments, a 5,280-pound slab of carved granite that was positioned in the middle of the building's rotunda, violated constitutional guarantees of separation of church and state. After a federal deadline elapsed in August, Mr. Moore's fellow justices overruled him and moved the monument to a storage room, closed to the public, where it remained on Thursday.
That action nearly provoked a riot, and many analysts thought that when it came time for the nine-member ethics panel to rule on Mr. Moore's fate, members would allow him to keep his job because of the political risks of removing him. Members of the panel are appointed by various Alabama legal organizations, the governor and lieutenant governor, and five hold elected office. The panel can remove a judge only by a unanimous vote.
"I'm really surprised," said William Stewart, a political science professor at the University of Alabama. "Usually, when you get a group of nine people, at least one will be thinking not so much of doing the right thing but saving his own skin. This took courage. I don't see how voting against the Ten Commandments judge could help anybody's political career in any way."
William Pryor Jr., Alabama's attorney general, was the man in the middle. Up until this summer, Mr. Pryor, a conservative, had supported Mr. Moore, speaking at Ten Commandments rallies and assigning lawyers from his office to help with Mr. Moore's legal defense.
But after Mr. Moore began losing his appeals and Mr. Pryor was nominated by President Bush for an appellate judgeship, the attorney general became one of Mr. Moore's most strident critics. He led the prosecution of Mr. Moore, who was accused of six ethical breaches, from failing to comply with the law to bringing "the judicial office into disrepute."
Senate Republicans are having little luck in pushing Mr. Pryor's nomination past determined Democratic opposition, but today, he radiated triumph as he cut through a crowd in the Montgomery courthouse.
"I did my duty," Mr. Pryor said. "I will lose no sleep over this."
Many of Mr. Moore's supporters were outraged that an unelected panel had removed an elected justice.
"They're undoing a democratic process here," said Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition. "It smacks of third-world countries. It smacks of dictatorship."
If Mr. Moore appeals, his fellow justices are expected to recuse themselves. If that happens, it is not clear if Republican governor Bob Riley would appoint alternate judges or if the State Supreme Court itself would select a panel to hear Mr. Moore's case.
Either way, Mr. Moore can run for chief justice again. The panel that removed Mr. Moore lacks the authority to permanently keep a judge off the bench.
The last Alabama judge who was ousted, a probate judge found guilty of financial fraud in 1999, won back his seat in an election the next year.
In the meantime, it is up to Gov. Riley to appoint a replacement chief justice to finish Mr. Moore's term, which ends in 2006.
According to Cynthia Gray, director of the Center for Judicial Ethics in Chicago, no other chief justice in recent history has been ousted from the bench for ethics violations.
Maverick: Added to the news page. Message icon updated.
