Alabama officials remove Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument from display in Judicial Building

Church & State, Oct 2003 by Boston, Rob

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore didn't hesitate to talk tough: Anyone attempting to remove his two-and-a-half-ton Ten Commandments monument from the Judicial Building in Montgomery, he said, would have to go through him.

"If they want to get the Commandments, they're going to have to get me first," he told Focus on the Family's CitizenLink newsletter Aug. 19.

A week later, that's exactly what happened. The monument was gone and so was Moore - at least temporarily. Suspended from his position as chief justice, Moore could only fume as workers enforced a federal court order and wheeled the monument away.

Moore and his allies in the Religious Right had hoped for a much more dramatic ending. The Rev. Jerry Falwell had practically salivated at the prospect of a televised confrontation.

"I told Judge Moore yesterday that nothing could be better for the cause of religious freedom than that the court send some military or law enforcement personnel into the Judicial Building in Montgomery with a jackhammer," Falwell told Reuters news agency in August.

"That video alone would anger people in this country . . . that we would have the impetus we need for a constitutional amendment isolating the right to display religious paraphernalia in the public square forever," continued Falwell.

Falwell's dreams of confrontation never came to pass, however. Instead, Moore's monument went out with a whimper, not a bang. On Aug. 27, a handful of workers wielding moving dollies hoisted the monument aboard and whisked it to a small storage room in the building, away from public view.

Local law enforcement had cleared the building of protestors a few days earlier. While about two dozen Moore supporters had to be forcibly removed, there was no need for a phalanx of uniformed police to drag hundreds of Moore backers away. Instead of a potentially violent clash on national TV, when it came time to remove the monument, all Falwell got was a mundane video of blue jean-clad moving men trying to figure out how best to relocate a 5,280-pound rock without anyone suffering a back strain. The proceedings were so dull that CNN and Fox News Channel frequently cut to protests from the crowd outside the building.

The ending was anticlimactic but not unexpected. Since a federal appeals court ruled July 1 that Moore's monument, which he erected under cover of darkness one night in August of 2001, was unconstitutional, supporters of church-state separation knew it was only a matter of time before the sculpture was removed. The federal appeals court's Glassroth v. Moore decision declaring the display unconstitutional marked the beginning of the end for the monument that many in Alabama had dubbed "Roy's rock." (See "Commandment from the Court," September Church & State.)

Moore wasn't about to give in without a fight. Faced with an order from U.S. District Justice Myron H. Thompson to remove the monument, Moore mustered considerable audacity and said no. In mid August he declared that the federal court had no jurisdiction in the matter and flatly said he would not order the sculpture out of the building.

"I have no intention of removing the monument of the Ten Commandments and the moral foundation of law," he told reporters Aug. 14. "To do so would, in effect, result in the disestablishment of our system of justice in this state. This I cannot and will not do."

Moore's fellow members of the Alabama Supreme Court had other ideas. State law allows a majority of justices to decide internal administrative matters, a provision that gave the other justices the leverage they needed to stop Moore's crusade.

In a statement, Associate Justice J. Gorman Houston Jr. said he and the other seven justices of the court would do whatever was necessary to make certain that Alabama taxpayers did not have to pay fines for being in contempt of court.

Days later, the eight justices, seven of whom are Republicans, voted unanimously to overrule Moore and abide by the federal court's order. Shortly after that, Moore was suspended from his duties by the state Judicial Inquiry Commission, and Houston became acting chief justice.

Americans United Executive Director Barry W. Lynn hailed the justices' actions.

"This is a huge step in the right direction," Lynn remarked. "Moore is increasingly isolated in his defiance of the federal court. His own colleagues realize he's gotten far out on a legal limb, and they want no part of it."

AU Legal Director Ayesha N. Khan, who argued the case before the 11th Circuit, concurred.

The action by the associate justices, she said, "just shows what an extremist Roy Moore is."

State officials, including Gov. Bob Riley (R) and Attorney General William Pryor, quickly abandoned Moore. Pryor, who has been nominated by President George W. Bush for a seat on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had nothing to gain by acting in defiance of the very court he hopes to join. Pryor had earlier been a close Moore ally, but he issued a statement saying that while he believes Moore's display was legal, the state of Alabama would not defy a federal court.