Roy Moore

Roy Stewart Moore
File:Moore Picture (tn).jpg
Alabama Supreme Court Judge
In office January, 2001 – November, 2003
Preceded by	Perry O. Hooper, Sr.
Succeeded by	Drayton Nabers, Jr.
Personal details
Born	February 11, 1947 Gadsden, Alabama, USA
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Kayla Moore

Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947 in Etowah County, Alabama) is an American jurist and politician often referred to as the "Ten Commandments judge" because of his refusal, as the elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse despite orders from a federal court to do so. On November 13, 2003 Alabama's Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed him from his post as Chief Justice. In the years preceding his election to the Alabama Supreme Court, Moore had successfully resisted previous attempts to have a display of the Ten Commandments removed from his courtroom.

Roy Moore's supporters regard his stand as a defense of judicial rights and 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, and that Moore seeks to impose the moral positions of Southern Baptists on the public.

Roy Moore unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination to the governorship of Alabama in 2006, losing to incumbent Bob Riley in the June 2006 primary.

Early life

Education and military service

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, Moore first served in several posts as a military police officer, including Fort Benning, Georgia, and Illesheim, Germany before being sent to Vietnam. Moore served as company commander of his MP unit and was known to be very strict (to the point of earning a reputation as "being a stickler for constant salutes and regulation haircuts in the midst of war"), earning him the derogatory nickname "Captain America." His role earned him several enemies, and he 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. After graduating, he returned to his hometown of Gadsden and began private practice, focusing on personal injury and insurance cases.

Elections and travels

Moore soon moved to the district attorney's office, working as Etowah County's first full-time deputy prosecutor. During his tenure there, Moore was investigated by the state bar for "suspect conduct" after convening a grand jury to discuss what he perceived to be funding shortages in the sheriff's office. Several weeks after the state bar investigation was dismissed, Moore quit his prosecuting position to run (as a Democrat) for the county's circuit-court judge seat in 1982. The election was bitter, with Moore alleging that cases were being delayed in exchange for payoffs. The allegations were never substantiated, and Moore overwhelmingly lost the election. A second bar complaint followed, and though this too was dismissed, Moore left Gadsden shortly after.

Moore's travels eventually took him to Texas, where he spent a year training and fighting professionally as a kickboxer. After a brief return to Gadsden, Moore next travelled to the Australian Outback and, after meeting Fundamentalist Christian Colin Rolfe, worked for almost a year as a cowboy on Rolfe's 42,000-acre cattle ranch. He remembered both careers fondly in his autobiography and subsequent interviews and was particularly proud of a kickboxing victory in the Greater Gadsden Tournament of Champions, a triumph he attributed to divine will.

Moore returned to Gadsden again in 1985 and ran for Etowah County's district attorney position against Jimmy Hedgspeth the following year. He lost that election as well, and Moore returned to private practice in the city. During this period, he married his wife Kayla, switched his party affiliation to the Republican Party, and added to his office a wooden Ten Commandments plaque he had carved in 1980.

Circuit Judge

Appointment

In 1992, Etowah County Circuit Judge Julius Swann died in office, leaving Republican governor Guy Hunt with the task of appointing a temporary replacement until the next election. Moore's name was floated by some of his associates, and a background check was initiated with several state and county agencies, including the Etowah County district attorney's office. Moore's former political opponent Jimmy Hedgspeth, who still helmed the D.A.'s office, recommended Moore despite personal reservations, and Moore was installed in the position he had failed to win in 1982. "The impossible had happened!" Moore wrote afterward. "God had given me something that I had not been able to obtain through my own efforts."[1]

Early prayer / Ten Commandments controversy

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Roy Moore's wooden Ten Commandments plaque.

When Moore's tenure as circuit judge began, he brought his wooden Ten Commandments plaque with him, hanging it on the walls of his courtroom behind his bench. Moore told the Montgomery Advertiser that his intention in hanging the plaque was to fill up the bare space on the courtroom walls and to indicate the Ten Commandments' importance to him. He states that it was never his intention to generate controversy; still, as he told the Atlantic, he understood that the potential for controversy was there, but "I wanted to establish the moral foundation of our law."

Soon after his appointment, when Moore presided over a case where two male strippers (known professionally as "Silk" and "Satin") were charged with murdering a drug addict, the attorney for the defendants objected to the display. This drew the attention of critics, who also objected to Moore's practice of opening court sessions with a prayer asking for divine guidance for jurors in their deliberations. (In at least one instance, Judge Moore asked a clergyman to lead the court's jury pool in prayer.) Though such pre-session prayers were not uncommon in Alabama, having begun many years earlier by George Wallace when he was a circuit judge, the local branch of the ACLU sent a letter in June 1993 threatening a lawsuit if such prayers did not cease.

On June 20, 1994, the ACLU sent a representative to Moore's courtroom to observe and record the pre-session prayer. Though the organization did not immediately file suit, Moore decried the action as an "act of intimidation" in a post-trial press conference. The incident drew additional attention to Moore just as we was campaigning to hold onto his circuit court seat. In that year's election, Moore won the seat in a landslide victory over local attorney R.D. Pitts, who had (unsuccessfully) prosecuted the "Silk and Satin" murder case.

Lawsuit

In March 1995, the ACLU filed its lawsuit against Moore, claiming that the pre-session prayers and the Ten Commandments display were both unconstitutional. This original lawsuit was eventually dismissed for technical reasons, but Governor Fob James instructed state Attorney General Bill Pryor to file suit in Montgomery County in support of Moore. The case ended up before state Circuit Judge Charles Price, who in 1996 declared the prayers unconstitutional but initially allowed the Ten Commandments plaque to remain on the courtroom walls.

Immediately after the ruling, Moore held a press conference vowing to defy the ruling against pre-session prayers and affirming a religious intent in displaying the plaque. Critics responded by asking Price to reconsider his previous ruling, and the judge issued a new ruling requiring the Ten Commandments plaque to be removed in ten days. Moore appealed Price's decision and kept the plaque up; ten days later the Alabama Supreme Court issued a temporary stay against the ruling. The Court never ruled in the case, throwing it out for technical reasons in 1998.

On the day that the circuit court ruling was stayed, Moore appeared on the national morning program Today, praising the ruling and vowing to continue his practices. A poll released soon after found that 88% of Alabamians supported Moore's stance. Though Moore was later investigated by the state Judicial Ethics Committee regarding the use of money raised by Coral Ridge Ministries in his defense, the investigation eventually ended with no charges being brought. The practice of opening court sessions with prayer, though not uniform throughout Alabama, continues in state courtrooms to this day.

Chief Justice, Alabama Supreme Court

Campaign and election

In late 1999, the Christian Family Association began working to draft Moore into the race for Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. In December 1999, Moore announced from his Etowah County courtroom his entry into the race, promising to "return God to our public life and restore the moral foundation of our law." His campaign centered on religious issues, arguing that Christianity's supposedly declining influence "corresponded directly with school violence, homosexuality, and crime."[2]

Moore's opponent in the election, sitting Supreme Court justice Harold See, was heavily favored by the state business community and the Republican establishment, leading many observers to think little of Moore's entry in the race. However, as Moore made headway in state polls, See elicited the help of Republican strategist Karl Rove in the 2000 election. Despite Rove's support and significantly more campaign funding, See lost the Republican primary to Moore, who easily defeated Democratic contender Sharon Yates in November's general election. Moore was sworn in on January 15, 2001.

D.H. vs. H.H.

In February 2002, Chief Justice Moore issued an opinion which expressed his belief that the State should rightfully use its powers to punish homosexual behavior. The case, D.H. vs. H.H., was a custody dispute where a lesbian mother was petitioning for custody of her children, alleging abuse by her ex-husband. A circuit court in Alabama had ruled in favor of the father, but the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals overturned that verdict 4-1, claiming that substantial evidence existed of abusive behavior by the father.

The state Supreme Court overruled the appeals court on technical reasons; however, Chief Justice Moore issued a concurring opinion concluding that a parent's homosexuality should be a deciding factor in refusing custody:

To disfavor practicing homosexuals in custody matters is not invidious discrimination, nor is it legislating personal morality. On the contrary, disfavoring practicing homosexuals in custody matters promotes the general welfare of the people of our State in accordance with our law, which is the duty of its public servants....

The State carries the power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle....

Homosexual behavior is a ground for divorce, 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. That is enough under the law to allow a court to consider such activity harmful to a child. To declare that homosexuality is harmful is not to make new law but to reaffirm the old; to say that it is not harmful is to experiment with people's lives, particularly the lives of children.

Moore's comments, particularly those appearing to endorse the execution of homosexuals, led to protests in front of the state judicial building and drew nationwide criticism from civil rights groups such as GLAAD, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and the Human Rights Campaign. An official complaint with the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission was also filed by the Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund.

Ten Commandments monument controversy

Construction and installation

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Ten Commandments monument commissioned by Roy Moore.

A month after his election, Moore began making plans for a larger monument to the Ten Commandments, reasoning that the Alabama Supreme Court building required something grander than a wooden plaque. His final design involved a 5,280 pound (2400 kg) granite block, three feet wide by three feet deep by four feet tall, covered with quotes from the Declaration of Independence, the national anthem, and various founding fathers. The crowning element would be two large carved tablets enscribed with the Ten Commandments. High-grade granite from Vermont was ordered and shipped, and Moore found benefactors and a sculptor to complete the job.

Late the night of July 31, 2001, despite some intial installation difficulties and concerns regarding structural support for the monument's weight, Moore had the completed monument transported to the state judicial building and installed in the central rotunda. The installation was filmed, and videotapes of the event were sold by Coral Ridge Ministries, an evangelical media outlet which later used proceeds from the film's sales to pay Moore's ensuing legal expenses.

The next morning, Moore held a press conference in the central rotunda to officially unveil the monument. In a speech following the unveiling, Moore declared, "Today a cry has gone out across our land for the acknowledgment of that God upon whom this nation and our laws were founded....May this day mark the restoration of the moral foundation of law to our people and the return to the knowledge of God in our land."

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."

The trial began on October 15, 2002. Evidence for the plaintiffs 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:

[The monument] serves to remind the Appellate Courts and judges of the Circuit and District Court of this State and members of the bar who appear before them, as well as the people of Alabama who visit the Alabama Judicial Building, of the truth stated in the Preamble to the Alabama Constitution that in order to establish justice we must invoke 'the favor and guidance of almighty God.'

On this note, Moore claimed that the Ten Commandments are the "moral foundation" of U.S. law, stating that in order to restore this foundation, "we must first recognize the source from which all morality springs...[by] recogniz[ing] the sovereignty of God." He added that the addition of the monument to the state judiciary building marked "the beginning of the restoration of the moral foundation of law to our people" and "a return to the knowledge of God in our land."

Additionally, Moore acknowledged an explicit religious intent in placing the monument, agreeing that the monument "reflects the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men" and "acknowledge[s] God’s overruling power over the affairs of men." However, in Moore's view this did not violate the doctrine of separation of church and state; as the presiding judge later summarized it, Moore argued that "the Judeo-Christian God reigned over both the church and the state in this country, and that both owed allegiance to that God," although they must keep their affairs separate.

Judgement and appeal

On November 18, 2002, federal U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued his ruling declaring that the monument violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and was thus unconstitutional:

If all Chief Justice Moore had done were to emphasize the Ten Commandments' historical and educational importance...or their importance as a model code for good citizenship...this court would have a much different case before it. But the Chief Justice did not limit himself to this; he went far, far beyond. He installed a two-and-a-half ton monument in the most prominent place in a government building, managed with dollars from all state taxpayers, with the specific purpose and effect of establishing a permanent recognition of the 'sovereignty of God,' the Judeo-Christian God, over all citizens in this country, regardless of each taxpaying citizen's individual personal beliefs or lack thereof. To this, the Establishment Clause says no."

Judge Thompson's decision mandated that Moore remove the monument from the state judicial building by January 3, 2003, but stayed this order on December 23, 2002, after Moore appealed the decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. This appeal was argued on June 4, 2003, before a three-judge panel in Atlanta, Georgia. On July 1, 2003, the panel issued a ruling upholding the lower court's decision, agreeing that "the monument fails two of Lemon’s three prongs. It violates the Establishment Clause." Additionally, the court noted that different religious traditions assign different wordings of the Ten Commandments, meaning that "choosing which version of the Ten Commandments to display can have religious endorsement implications."

In response to the appeals court's decision, Judge Thompson lifted his earlier stay on August 5, 2003, requiring Moore to have the monument removed from public areas of the state judicial building by August 20.

Protests and monument removal

Rally before the Alabama State Judicial Building, August 16, 2003.

On August 14, Moore announced his intention to disobey Judge Thompson's order to have the monument removed. Two days later, large rallies in support of Moore and the Ten Commandments monument began forming in front of the judicial building, featuring speakers such as Alan Keyes, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Moore himself. Though organizers had hoped for up to 25,000 protesters, the crowd peaked at an estimated count of 4,000 that day, and anywhere from several hundred to over a thousand protesters remained through the end of August.

The time limit for removal expired on August 20, with the monument still in place in the building's rotunda. As specified in Judge Thompson's order, the state of Alabama faced fines of $5,000 a day until the monument was removed. In response, the eight other members of the Alabama Supreme Court intervened on August 21, unanimously overruled Moore, and ordered the monument's removal.

On August 27, the monument was moved to a non-public side room in the judicial building. The monument was not immediately removed from the building for several reasons--pending legal hearings, 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 not actually removed from the state judicial building until July 19, 2004.

Removal from office

On August 22, 2003, two days after the deadline for the Ten Commandments monument's removal had passed, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission filed a complaint with the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ), a panel of judges, lawyers and others appointed variously by judges, legal leaders, the governor and the lieutenant governor. The complaint effectively suspended Moore from the Chief Justice position pending a hearing by the COJ.

The COJ ethics hearing was held on November 12, 2003. Moore repeated his earlier sentiment that "to acknowledge God cannot be a violation of the Canons of Ethics. Without God there can be no ethics." He also acknowledged that he would repeat his defiance of the court order if given another opportunity to do so, and that if he returned to office, "I certainly wouldn't leave [the monument] in a closet, shrouded from the public." In closing arguments, the Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system....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."

The next day, the COJ issued an unanimous opinion ruling that "Chief Justice Moore has violated the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics as alleged by the JIC in its complaint." The COJ had several disciplinary options, including censure or suspension without pay, but because Moore's responses had indicated he would defy any similar court orders in the future, the COJ concluded that "under these circumstances, there is no penalty short of removal from office that would resolve this issue." Moore was immediately removed from his post.

Later political life

2004 election issues

Moore was considered as a possible candidate for the Constitution Party in the 2004 presidential election. Despite encouragment from several corners, including at least one tongue-in-cheek endorsement, Moore did not pursue the nomination.

Moore was also a notable opponent of a proposed amendment to the Alabama constitution in 2004. Known as Amendment 2, the proposed legislation would have removed wording from the state constitution that referred to poll taxes and required separate schools for "white and colored children," a practice already outlawed due to civil rights-era legislation. Moore and other opponents of the measure argued that the amendment's wording would have allowed federal judges to force the state to fund public school improvements with increased taxes. Voters in Alabama, a fiercely anti-tax state, narrowly defeated the proposed amendment, with a margin of 1,850 votes out of 1.38 million cast.

In 2004, along with Herb Titus, Moore was an original drafter of the Constitution Restoration Act which sought to remove federal courts' jurisdiction over a government official or entity's "acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government," and provided for the impeachment of judges who failed to do so. The bill was introduced in both houses of Congress in 2004 and then reintroduced in 2005, languishing in committee both times.

Candidacy for Governor

See also: Alabama gubernatorial election, 2006

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Moore campaigning for Governor of Alabama.

On October 3, 2005, Moore announced that he would run against Republican incumbent Bob Riley in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary in Alabama. On the campaign trail, Moore referred to what he believed was the stand that the American founding fathers made for the biblical basis for law, including statements that he felt extolled the supremacy of God as the basis for successful government.

As with the 2000 Supreme Court election, Moore's opponent maintained steady advantages over the Moore campaign, including almost four times as much funding and the support of the state Republican establishment. However, intra-party politics proved trickier this time around. Moore accused the chair of the state's Republican Party of bias towards Riley and called on her to resign; he also criticized President Bush for his support of Riley in the race. His criticism of the state Republican machine was so harsh that he eventually had to call a press conference to quell rumors that he would run as an independent if he lost the Republican primary.

Despite Moore's predictions that his initial low polling numbers were inaccurate, Riley won the primary by a 2-to-1 margin. In his concession speech, Moore told supporters that "God's will has been done." Moore did not call Riley to concede, later stating that he would not support Riley in the general election because of Riley's acceptance of campaign contributions from political action committees.

Journalism

On July 26, 2006 WorldNetDaily announced that Moore would be joining the publication as a columnist. In his debut column, Moore argued that God is the "sovereign source of our law," echoing his language and reasoning used in the failed Constitution Restoration Act.

Writings

• Moore, Roy (2005). So Help Me God: The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and the Battle For Religious Freedom. Nashville: Broadman & Holman. ISBN 0805432639.
• Moore, Roy (2005). The Rule of Law. In Mark Sutherland (Ed.), Judicial Tyranny: The New Kings of America? St. Louis: Amerisearch. ISBN 0975345567.

See also

• Glassroth v. Moore
• Thomas More Law Center

References

• Green, Joshua (October 2005). "Roy and His Rock." The Atlantic.
• Kleffman, Todd (Oct. 13, 2002). "Monumental decision (first in a two-part series)." Montgomery Advertiser.
• "Ten Commandments judge removed from office" (Nov. 14, 2003). CNN.

External links

• Judge Roy Moore for Governor of Alabama - official gubernatorial campaign site.
• Foundation For Moral Law - legal organization founded by Moore.
• The Ten Commandments Case - archive of Montgomery Advertiser stories related to Roy Moore.
• The rise and fall of Judge Roy Moore - from MSNBC.
• "What's So Bad About The Ten Commandments" - explains humanist position with reference to ethical objections to the Decalogue.
• "Man of the Year: Roy Moore" - article by Ann Coulter in support of Moore.