Post by AuntieSocial on Nov 30, 2003 16:13:53 GMT -5
Ousted judge 'holds court' here
Click here to read the article on the original site
By:Tammy Worth
November 20, 2003
Johnson County Sun
Pictured is the Ten Commandments monument placed in the Alabama Judicial Building by former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who spoke last night at First Family Church in Overland Park
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was scheduled to appear at First Family Church in Overland Park Wednesday night - his first public appearance since being removed from the bench.
Moore was expelled from office last week by a unanimous vote of Alabama's nine-member Court of the Judiciary. The ethics trial lasted only a day but was the culmination of a two-year legal battle fought by Moore - first to keep his 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama State Supreme Court building, then to keep his job.
"We are denying the faith upon which this country is founded," said Moore in an interview Wednesday. "We want to give people freedom of thought, except when we express it for the God who gave it to us."
Moore erected the monument in the Montgomery, Ala., building on July 31, 2001. By October 2001, lawsuits had been filed in U.S. District Court by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State - both represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The lawsuits were consolidated, and Moore lost the subsequent trial plus an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Still, he refused to comply with the U.S. district judge's order that he remove the monument. Subsequently, he was suspended from office and the eight other state Supreme Court justices ruled that the monument should be taken out of the public's view. It was moved into a closet last August.
On Nov. 3, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Moore, and on Nov. 13 he was relieved of his official duties and his $172,000-a-year salary.
Moore has been speaking to his lawyers about a possible appeal of his expulsion. He also plans to work with others to support legislation concerning the acknowledgment of God by the states, the specifics of which he will announce after the holidays, he said.
According to Moore, the government is rife with religious references such as "In God we Trust" on currency and the mention of God in federal and state constitutions.
"There is no question but that we do have a tremendous amount of Judeo-Christian ethic in how we have established our government," said Caroline McKnight, executive director of the Mainstream Coalition, a Johnson County-based organization dedicated to preserving the separation between church and state. "But we weren't at the founding and certainly are not now a totally Christian society."
In the opinion issued following Moore's trial in U.S. District Court, the judge quoted Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who held that the First Amendment permitted only those religious references that had "lost through rote repetition any significant religious content."
"There is a problem in our judicial system if you can acknowledge God (only) as long as it doesn't mean anything," said Moore.
Those opposing the Ten Commandments monument, and a smaller version he placed on the wall of his courtroom in 1995, argued that by displaying that text in a government building, Moore was defying the Constitution, specifically the portion that states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said the monument was an example of "blatant government endorsement of religion."
"Putting up what is a graven image ... as some sort of symbol of our legal system is inappropriate," added McKnight. "But we also think there are bigger issues than where a huge block of granite goes."
Moore said we must acknowledge God in government.
"God gave us freedom of thought and expression," he said. "Our Constitution came from an acknowledgment of the faith upon which this country is founded."
He said the Ten Commandments monument was so controversial because "men want to determine their own destiny, to have complete freedom without controls and no restrictions on life."
"When people get away from the scriptures as a moral law," he added, "they are then able to make their own laws. They kill babies and call it abortion, commit sodomy and call it homosexuality. If they want to get married to a cow, they can do it and call it a civil union."
Moore was the first Alabama chief justice to be removed by the Court of the Judiciary. He said that if he had known in advance that he would lose his job for placing the monument, he would have done it anyway.
"I must acknowledge God because it is the foundation of our justice system in Alabama," he said. "To take an oath and say so help you God, then to not be able to say who that God is, is ridiculous."
Moore has offered the monument, which has been locked in a closet at the courthouse, to Congress to place in the nation's Capitol. He hopes the congressmen will accept it to show that the federal government can and will recognize God.
In a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll taken in August, 77 percent of the Americans interviewed felt it was wrong to order the removal of the monument.
Click here to read the article on the original site
By:Tammy Worth
November 20, 2003
Johnson County Sun
Pictured is the Ten Commandments monument placed in the Alabama Judicial Building by former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who spoke last night at First Family Church in Overland Park
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was scheduled to appear at First Family Church in Overland Park Wednesday night - his first public appearance since being removed from the bench.
Moore was expelled from office last week by a unanimous vote of Alabama's nine-member Court of the Judiciary. The ethics trial lasted only a day but was the culmination of a two-year legal battle fought by Moore - first to keep his 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama State Supreme Court building, then to keep his job.
"We are denying the faith upon which this country is founded," said Moore in an interview Wednesday. "We want to give people freedom of thought, except when we express it for the God who gave it to us."
Moore erected the monument in the Montgomery, Ala., building on July 31, 2001. By October 2001, lawsuits had been filed in U.S. District Court by the Southern Poverty Law Center and Americans United for Separation of Church and State - both represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The lawsuits were consolidated, and Moore lost the subsequent trial plus an appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Still, he refused to comply with the U.S. district judge's order that he remove the monument. Subsequently, he was suspended from office and the eight other state Supreme Court justices ruled that the monument should be taken out of the public's view. It was moved into a closet last August.
On Nov. 3, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by Moore, and on Nov. 13 he was relieved of his official duties and his $172,000-a-year salary.
Moore has been speaking to his lawyers about a possible appeal of his expulsion. He also plans to work with others to support legislation concerning the acknowledgment of God by the states, the specifics of which he will announce after the holidays, he said.
According to Moore, the government is rife with religious references such as "In God we Trust" on currency and the mention of God in federal and state constitutions.
"There is no question but that we do have a tremendous amount of Judeo-Christian ethic in how we have established our government," said Caroline McKnight, executive director of the Mainstream Coalition, a Johnson County-based organization dedicated to preserving the separation between church and state. "But we weren't at the founding and certainly are not now a totally Christian society."
In the opinion issued following Moore's trial in U.S. District Court, the judge quoted Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who held that the First Amendment permitted only those religious references that had "lost through rote repetition any significant religious content."
"There is a problem in our judicial system if you can acknowledge God (only) as long as it doesn't mean anything," said Moore.
Those opposing the Ten Commandments monument, and a smaller version he placed on the wall of his courtroom in 1995, argued that by displaying that text in a government building, Moore was defying the Constitution, specifically the portion that states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."
The Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, said the monument was an example of "blatant government endorsement of religion."
"Putting up what is a graven image ... as some sort of symbol of our legal system is inappropriate," added McKnight. "But we also think there are bigger issues than where a huge block of granite goes."
Moore said we must acknowledge God in government.
"God gave us freedom of thought and expression," he said. "Our Constitution came from an acknowledgment of the faith upon which this country is founded."
He said the Ten Commandments monument was so controversial because "men want to determine their own destiny, to have complete freedom without controls and no restrictions on life."
"When people get away from the scriptures as a moral law," he added, "they are then able to make their own laws. They kill babies and call it abortion, commit sodomy and call it homosexuality. If they want to get married to a cow, they can do it and call it a civil union."
Moore was the first Alabama chief justice to be removed by the Court of the Judiciary. He said that if he had known in advance that he would lose his job for placing the monument, he would have done it anyway.
"I must acknowledge God because it is the foundation of our justice system in Alabama," he said. "To take an oath and say so help you God, then to not be able to say who that God is, is ridiculous."
Moore has offered the monument, which has been locked in a closet at the courthouse, to Congress to place in the nation's Capitol. He hopes the congressmen will accept it to show that the federal government can and will recognize God.
In a USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll taken in August, 77 percent of the Americans interviewed felt it was wrong to order the removal of the monument.
