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Ten Commandments Judge Puts Hopes in Supreme Court Wed August 20, 2003 02:50 PM ET
By Verna Gates MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Reuters) - A defiant Alabama judge asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to issue a last-minute stay blocking the court-ordered removal of a public monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments.
A federal court in Alabama has given the state's chief justice Roy Moore until midnight Wednesday to remove the two-ton biblical display from the state judicial building in Montgomery on the grounds it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has upheld that ruling.
But Moore, a Christian who was easily elected to head Alabama's Supreme Court two years ago, has refused to budge, arguing that the lower court has no power to intervene in the matter.
In a motion filed with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, Moore's lawyers said a stay "would permit the chief justice to fulfill the campaign promise that he made to the citizens of Alabama to restore the moral foundation of law."
The state could face fines of about $5,000 per day plus legal costs if it refuses to comply with the court order to remove the monument.
Moore has won support in fundamentalist circles in Bible-Belt Alabama and neighboring states for championing public displays of the Ten Commandments and challenging those who oppose such efforts.
Evangelical Christian minister Jerry Falwell has compared him to slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who defied segregation laws in the white-dominated U.S. South in the 1950s and 1960s.
On Wednesday, two dozen of Moore's supporters held a prayer vigil in Montgomery.
"All systems are under the law of God," said Phil Beverly. "We are a Godly people and the Ten Commandments represent our submission to God."
Civil liberties groups, however, have denounced Moore for imposing his own personal religious views on others and using his office to propagate the Christian faith in defiance of U.S. law.
The granite monument has been on public display since July, 2001, when Moore and a small band of supporters had it moved secretly into the judicial building.
It contains two tablets bearing the commandments that, according to Judeo-Christian scripture, were passed from God to Moses. Quotes from American founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and other historical figures are inscribed on its sides.
In a ruling late last year, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson agreed with civil liberties activists who had filed a lawsuit objecting to the monument.
"I hope today is the day that Judge Roy Moore removes his monument from taxpayer property," Larry Darby, a spokesman for American Atheists, said on Wednesday. "I hope he has a change of heart, but it doesn't look likely."
The battle is not the first time that Moore has run afoul of the courts on religious matters. He first came to national attention in the 1990s when he waged a legal fight to keep a small hand-carved plaque of the Commandments on display in his courtroom in Gadsden, Alabama. But Moore left the court in Gadsden for higher office before the courts had a chance to decide the issue. (Additional reporting by Jim Vicini in Washington)
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Quis custodiet istos custodes? (Who will watch the watchers?)
-- Juvenal's Satires, circa 110 AD