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I pulled this from another list:



Judge's Biblical Monument Is Ruled Unconstitutional

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN


<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/19/national/19COMM.html>


MONTGOMERY, Ala., Nov. 18. Roy Moore may be the chief justice of the

Alabama Supreme Court, but around here most people just call him the 
Ten

Commandments judge.


And the 5,280-pound monument of the holy tablets he wheeled into his

courthouse early one morning last year, without the knowledge of his

colleagues, is simply known as "Roy's rock."


Almost instantly the chunk of granite became a beacon, a shinning 
light

across the South, drawing fundamentalist Christians to Montgomery by 
the

busload. Many dropped to their knees in front of the monument and 
prayed.


Civil liberties groups accused Justice Moore of turning a courthouse 
into

a church. But his popularity only grew. Not long ago, Justice Moore 
was a

little-known county judge with a homemade plaque of the Ten 
Commandments

tacked to his courtroom wall. Now he was an Alabama folk hero.



But today a federal judge issued his own commandment: Thou shalt 
remove

thy monument. Now.


"This court holds that the evidence is overwhelming and the law is 
clear

that the chief justice violated the Establishment Clause," wrote Judge

Myron H. Thompson of Federal District Court in Montgomery in a 
crackling

opinion, referring to a clause in the First Amendment. The monument is

"nothing less than an obtrusive year-round religious display intended 
to

proselytize on behalf of a particular religion, the chief justice's

religion."


In Alabama, there is no underestimating the popularity of religion and

defiance. While fundamentalists in Kansas lost their battle for

creationism, and supporters of organized school prayer were defeated 
in

Texas, evangelical Christians still set the agenda here. This is the

state, after all, where high school science books have stickers on 
them

saying evolution is just a theory.


Justice Moore tapped right into this, becoming a figurehead in the

movement pushing for more religion in public life. The 55-year-old 
judge,

a former ranch hand and kickboxer, does radio shows, helps raise money

for evangelical groups and travels roads near and far in his old blue

Cadillac, promoting his unique blend of church and state.


Today's decision was hailed by civil liberties groups as proof that 
there

are limits.


"Justice Moore was elected to administer justice, not to serve as a

religious minister," said Richard Cohen, general counsel of the 
Southern

Poverty Law Center, one of the parties that sued last month to have 
the

Ten Commandments removed.


Justice Moore's lawyer said the federal courts were "confused." He 
vowed to appeal today's ruling.


Justice Moore had repeatedly said he would never remove the monument, 
a four-foot-high cube that rises from the lobby floor. It was one of 
his

campaign pledges two years ago to bring the Ten Commandments to the 
State Supreme Court.


He has also rejected requests from outside groups to display other

monuments in the courthouse. By state law, it is his decision. In the

chief justice's pocket are the courthouse keys. An alliance of black

organizations asked to put up a plaque of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther 
King

Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Justice Moore said no. Ditto for the

atheist group that wanted to display a statue of an atom.


The roots of the case go back to 1992, when Justice Moore was 
appointed

as a judge in Etowah County, in northwestern Alabama. One of his first

acts was to hang a homemade rosewood plaque of the Ten Commandments in

his courtroom. 


Three years later, the A.C.L.U. sued. The first judge ordered Judge 
Moore

to take it down. Judge Moore refused. Then Gov. Fob James Jr. vowed to

send in the National Guard to protect Judge Moore's plaque. 


Judge Moore became a cause célèbre, sending his name recognition into 
a

realm that few other judges this side of Lance Ito ever enjoy. 


He emerged a contender for chief justice of the State Supreme Court 
and

won easily in November 2000.


The next August, early one morning, he sneaked the cube monument, paid

for by an evangelical group, into the court building. He did not tell 
any

of the eight other justices. 


A Montgomery lawyer, Stephen R. Glassroth, who is Jewish, then sued. 


"It offends me going to work everyday and coming face to face with 
that

symbol, which says to me that the state endorses Judge Moore's 
version of

the Judeo-Christian God above all others," Mr. Glassroth said.


Last month, a weeklong trial was held in federal court. Presiding was

Judge Thompson, an appointee of President Jimmy Carter. 


Justice Moore argued that the monument did not establish a state 
religion

but merely acknowledged the role God had played throughout the 
history of

American law.


"I feel very strongly that the monument represents the moral 
foundation

of law, which is greatly needed in our country today," he said. 


After mulling over his decision for a month, Judge Thompson issued a

93-page opinion today, saying Justice Moore had violated the 
separation

between church and state.


"The only way to miss the religious or nonsecular appearance of the

monument would be to walk through the Alabama State Judicial Building

with one's eyes closed," he wrote.


Judge Thompson said the display was much different from other 
displays of

the Ten Commandments, including one at the United States Supreme 
Court,

which is incorporated with other symbols.


He gave Justice Moore 30 days to get the monument out of the 
courthouse.


Christian groups in Alabama said they were not giving up.


"We anticipate wide-ranging resistance to the removal of this 
monument,"

the president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, John Giles, said.


Danielle J. Lipow, who delivered the closing argument for the Southern

Poverty Law Center, said that the case against Justice Moore and his

monument was not an attack on anyone who holds strong religious 
beliefs.


"Judge Moore has every right to believe what he does about the role of

God and the state," Ms. Lipow said. "What this case does is establish

that Judge Moore does not have the right to impose that view on others

through state policy. That's the danger."




DAMN THE CROSS!!! 

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