Roy Moore

This article is about the Alabama political figure. For the baseball player, see Roy Moore (MLB pitcher).

Roy Stuart Moore
File:Moore Picture (tn).jpg
Alabama Supreme Court Judge
In office November, 2000 – November, 2003
Succeeded by	Drayton Nabers, Jr.
Personal details
Born	February 11, 1947 Gadsden, Alabama, USA
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Kayla Moore

Roy Stuart Moore (born February 11, 1947 in Etowah County, Alabama) is a Southern Baptist American jurist, often referred to as the "Ten Commandments" judge. On November 14 2003 Alabama's Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed him from his post as Chief Justice of Alabama.

Roy Moore's supporters regard his stand as a defense of judicial rights, the Constitution of Alabama, and an act of interposition analogous to the actions of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Opponents contend that Moore's actions were deliberate provocations carried out in defiance of the First Amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Roy Moore is now seeking the Republican nomination to the governorship of Alabama in 2006.

Pre-judicial career

Moore attended public schools, graduating in 1965 from Etowah County High School. Upon graduation, he was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1969. With the Vietnam conflict reaching its peak, Lt. Moore first served in several posts as a military police officer, including Fort Riley, Kansas, and Illesheim, Germany. He was then sent to Vietnam, where he saw combat as a company commander and so feared being fragged that he recalls in his autobiography sleeping on sandbags to avoid a grenade or bomb being tossed under his cot.

Moore left the United States Army as a captain in 1974, and was admitted to the University of Alabama School of Law that same year, graduating with a Juris Doctorate degree in 1977. The nickname "Fruit Salad" was bestowed upon him by a professor for his unconventional legal theories. Unable to support his family on his meager pay as a deputy district attorney in Gadsden, Alabama, and defeated by a landslide in his bid for Circuit Court judge, Moore sought other employment opportunities that did not require a law license.

For several years in the early 1980s Moore earned or supplemented income from legal practice by professional kickboxing and working as a cowboy on a 42,000 acre cattle ranch in the Australian Outback owned by Fundamentalist Christian Colin Rolfe. He remembered both careers fondly in his autobiography and subsequent interviews and was particularly proud of a kick-boxing victory in the Greater Gadsden Tournament of Champions, a triumph he attributed to divine will. He returned to Gadsden and the practice of the law in 1985.

Judicial career

In 1992, Moore was appointed to replace Circuit Judge Julius Swann of the Alabama Sixteenth Judicial Circuit in Gadsden, Alabama, who had died in office. In 1994 Moore defeated well-known trial lawyer R. D. Pitts to win the seat outright.

In 1995, still serving as circuit judge, Moore was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for displaying a copy of the Ten Commandments in his court, and for opening court sessions with prayer. In at least one instance, Judge Moore asked a clergyman to lead the court's jury pool in prayer.

In 2000, Moore leveraged the attention he gained in the ACLU dispute by running for the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. In his campaign he promised to "restore the moral foundation of law." He was elected Chief Justice in November 2000.

Late on the evening of July 31, 2001, Moore installed a 5,300-pound (2400 kg) granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the central rotunda of the state judicial building. The event was videotaped, and proceeds from the sale of the video were used to raise money for a charity he supported.

In 2002, Moore ruled against a lesbian couple in a custody case. In his ruling he wrote "Homosexual behavior is...an act of sexual misconduct punishable as a crime in Alabama, a crime against nature, an inherent evil, and an act so heinous that it defies one’s ability to describe it." [1]

Federal lawsuit

On October 30, 2001, the ACLU of Alabama, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center were among groups which filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, asking that the monument be removed because it "sends a message to all who enter the State Judicial Building that the government encourages and endorses the practice of religion in general and Judeo-Christianity in particular." Evidence included testimony that lawyers of different religious beliefs had changed their work practices, including routinely avoiding visiting the court building to avoid passing by the monument, and testimony that the monument created a religious atmosphere, with many people using the area for prayer.

Moore argued that he would not remove the monument, as doing so would violate his oath of office. Moore further claimed that the Ten Commandments are the moral basis of U.S. law.

Judgement and appeal

Federal U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled the monument an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the government. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, the decision (PDF) of which, in part, reads:

The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court installed a two and one half-ton monument to the Ten Commandments as the centerpiece of the rotunda in the Alabama State Judicial Building. He did so in order to remind all Alabama citizens of, among other things, his belief in the sovereignty of the Judeo-Christian God over both the state and the church. And he rejected a request to permit a monument displaying a historically significant speech in the same space on the grounds that "[t]he placement of a speech of any man alongside the revealed law of God would tend in consequence to diminish the very purpose of the Ten Commandments monument.

After taking office he hung a hand-carved, wooden plaque depicting the Ten Commandments behind the bench in his courtroom and routinely invited clergy to lead prayer at jury organizing sessions...

Every fourth grader in the state is brought on a tour of the building as part of a field trip to the state capital. No one who enters the building through the main entrance can miss the monument. It is in the rotunda, directly across from the main entrance, in front of a plate-glass window with a courtyard and waterfall behind it. After entering the building, members of the public must pass through the rotunda to access the public elevator or stairs, to enter the law library, or to use the public restrooms.

Moore answered yes to these questions:

• [W]as your purpose in putting the Ten Commandments monument in the Supreme Court rotunda to acknowledge GOD’s law and GOD’s sovereignty?
• Do you agree that the monument, the Ten Commandments monument, reflects the sovereignty of GOD over the affairs of men?
• And the monument is also intended to acknowledge God’s overruling power over the affairs of men, would that be correct?
• [W]hen you say “GOD” you mean GOD of the Holy Scripture?

Moore also said, "there is no morality without God" on Sean Hannity's talk show.

The Appeals Court upheld the earlier decision and returned the matter to the lower court for enforcement, which was initiated with a court order requiring that the monument to be removed.

Aftermath

Moore refused to remove the monument as ordered, and allowed the time limit for removal to expire. The state of Alabama then faced fines of $5,000 a day until the monument was removed. The eight other members of the Alabama Supreme Court intervened, unanimously overruled Moore, and then ordered the monument's removal.

Because of the monument's weight, worries that the monument could break through the floor if it was taken outside intact, and a desire to avoid confrontation with protesters massed outside the building, the monument was put into storage within the building.

Moore was then suspended as Chief Justice (with full pay) pending a hearing of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (a panel of judges, lawyers and others appointed variously by judges, legal leaders, the governor and the lieutenant governor).

On November 3, 2003 the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal against the court order to remove the monument.

On November 13, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, in a unanimous opinion, removed an unrepentant Moore from the office of Chief Justice because, according to Court of the Judiciary Presiding Judge William Thompson, "[t]he chief justice placed himself above the law."

In closing arguments, the Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system" and "What message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it."

Moore was considered as a possible candidate for the Constitution Party in the 2004 presidential election, but did not pursue their nomination.

Candidacy for Governor

On October 3, 2005, Judge Moore announced that he plans to run for governor of Alabama in the upcoming 2006 election. Current governor Bob Riley is running for reelection, placing two Republicans in the race. Primary elections are to be held June 6, 2006. [2] Currently, Moore is polling as a heavy underdog to encumbent Bob Riley, who is favored by more than a 2:1 margin. [3]

Writings

• So Help Me God: The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and the Battle For Religious Freedom (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2005) ISBN 0805432639
• Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? by Mark Sutherland 2005. ISBN 0975345567 Features conservative perspectives on the United States judicial system from Mark Sutherland, US Attorney General Ed Meese, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Dave Meyer, Phyllis Schlafly, the Honorable Howard Phillips, Alan Sears, William Federer, Ben DuPre, Rev. Rick Scarborough, David Gibbs, Mathew Staver, Don Feder, Roy Moore, James Dobson and Herb Titus.

External links

Articles on Roy Moore

• Montgomery Advertiser profile of Moore (First in a Two-Part Series)
• Atlantic Monthy article from October 2005: "Roy and His Rock"(discusses in detail his kick-boxing and cattle handling careers and probably the most in-depth profile of the man in a relatively neutral source)

Pro-Roy Moore links

• Official site of Judge Roy Moore for Alabama Governor
• Ten Commandments judge removed from office
• Foundation For Moral Law - Ten Commandments Monument & Chief Justice Roy Moore
• Man of the Year: Roy Moore by Ann Coulter
• Roy Moore says Supreme Court Cases Don't Address God
• Statement by Chief Justice Moore Prepared by Lead Counsel, Steve Melchior
• Christian Voice

Anti-Roy Moore links

• Judge Roy Moore: Ten Commandments & the Law
• A Poem by Roy Moore
• Alabama Chief Justice Unfit For Office
• Alabama’s Chief Judge Ordered to Remove Ten Commandments Monument from Courthouse
• StopRoy.com - The Campaign To Stop Roy Moore
• What's So Bad About The Ten Commandments (explains humanist position with reference to ethical objections to the decalogue)