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

Church & State, Oct 2003 by Boston, Rob

Religious Right groups were furious to see their hero dethroned. John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, went so far as to accuse Associate Justice Houston of engineering a "coup" and charged that Moore had been locked out of his office and his staff threatened with termination.

Houston responded to these distortions quickly. Moore, he said, had full access to his office, and his staff's jobs were secure.

"Suggesting the existence of a 'coup' is patently absurd, wholly irresponsible, and, therefore, immoral," Houston said in a statement.

In fact, Moore is a long way from losing his job. The Judicial Inquiry Commission has filed six charges against Moore, accusing him of violating the state's code of judicial ethics. He was given 30 days to respond, after which he will face a trial before the nine-member Court of the Judiciary.

The Alabama attorney general's office will handle the prosecution of Moore, but winning a conviction could prove difficult. Two years ago, the state restructured its internal judicial policies, making removal of judges more difficult. The nine-member Court of the Judiciary, which consists of state judges, lawyers and laypeople, can remove Moore from office only if it votes to do so unanimously, a prospect that is seen as unlikely. Even if that happens, nothing would bar Moore from running for the seat again.

Facing criticism from all sides, Moore and his attorneys finally decided to give up. In a conference call arranged by judge Thompson that included attorneys from Americans United, the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, Moore's legal team agreed not to interfere with attempts to remove the monument.

(As the conference call got under way, a New Orleans man protesting outside appealed for divine intervention. "Lord, find a way to get into that speakerphone and cause confusion, cause the people on that conference call to have uncertainty about what to do," prayed Bill Shanks. The effort was unsuccessful, and the call was completed without a hitch.)

With Moore temporarily out of the picture, state officials arranged to have the monument taken to a back room in a private area of the building. It's unclear if it will stay there or later be moved to a church. Attorneys with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is based in Montgomery, visited the Judicial Building and signed off on the arrangement.

For the Religious Right, the outcome of the Moore saga must have been a bitter disappointment. After Moore's pledge of defiance, Religious Right groups promised to bring thousands of people to Montgomery to physically block efforts to remove the monument. That never happened.

A crowd estimated to be about 5,000 turned out for a pro-Moore rally Aug. 16, but many were from out of state and few stuck around after the event. As the days passed, the number of people lingering outside the courthouse in the blazing late-summer sun dwindled to a few dozen, despite frequent pleas for more support from Moore allies.

One reason for the no-shows may have been that the protest was never homegrown. The Moore defense was organized by the Rev. Rob Schenck, head of a small Washington, D.C.-based group called Faith and Action, the Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition and the Rev. Philip L. "Flip" Benham, director of Operation Rescue - none of whom live in Alabama. (All three have been active in the most radical fringe of the anti-abortion movement.)