MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP) — Alabama's controversial “Ten Commandments Judge” lost his final chance to keep his job April 30.
In a unanimous opinion, a specially appointed temporary Alabama Supreme Court upheld a November decision by the state's Court of the Judiciary removing former Chief Justice Roy Moore from office. He was removed for violating the state's judicial ethics code.
The judge, long an outspoken advocate for displaying the Ten Commandments on government property, had been suspended since August, when he defied a federal judge's order to remove a massive monument to the commandments. In 2001, without the permission or knowledge of his fellow justices, Moore had the monument installed in the rotunda of the building that houses the court as well as the state's judicial headquarters.
Federal District Judge Myron Thompson ruled in 2002 that the display violated the First Amendment's ban on government support for religion. When the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Thompson's decision, the judge ordered Moore to remove the sculpture from the public area of the building. Moore vowed not to do so.
Moore's fellow justices on the Alabama Supreme Court then overruled Moore's decision, meaning the 5,280-lb. granite monument — engraved with the Protestant King James translation of the biblical commandments — ultimately was removed from the building.
Moore had claimed that his oath of office to uphold the state and federal constitutions required him to “acknowledge God,” because the Alabama Constitution contains a brief reference to the Almighty. He further claimed the federal courts' orders to remove the monument were, therefore, “unlawful.”
The state's Judicial Inquiry Commission suspended Moore from his post, then brought charges against him in the Court of the Judiciary. That court ruled unanimously that nothing about Moore's oath of office required or enabled him to defy the orders of higher courts.
Alabama law allowed him to appeal that decision to the state's Supreme Court. Moore's former colleagues on that court then recused themselves from the case, and Gov. Bob Riley (R) appointed the special temporary court to hear the appeal. The court's members were drawn from retired Alabama judges.
The special court, in an unsigned opinion, said there was “clear and convincing evidence” that Moore had violated the judicial ethics canons. It also determined that the Court of the Judiciary did not have the authority to determine whether the federal court's decision was lawful or not. It also said the judicial court did not violate Moore's religious freedom or impose an unconstitutional “religious test” for public office by removing Moore.
“Two federal courts have concluded that this case is not about a public official's right to acknowledge God, as Chief Justice Moore contends,” the opinion said. “Rather, this case is about a public official who took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States and then refused to obey a valid order of a United States District Court holding that the placement of the monument in the Judicial Building violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”
But, in a statement released shortly after the decision, Moore attacked both the decision and the process that produced it. “The elected representatives of the people, the eight associate justices of the Alabama Supreme Court, hid behind the robes of an illegally appointed, politically selected court,” he said. “It is political in nature. This is about the acknowledgment of God and many judges can't admit they are wrong and that they can enter unlawful orders.”
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