The Senate will have 51 Republicans and
49 Democrats in January 2018. The vote for the Alabama US Senate race was close.
Democrat Doug Jones received 49.9% / 670,851 votes and Republican Roy Moore
received 48.4% / 650,936 votes. There are 3.326,812 total registered voters in
Alabama and 1,321,787 / 39% voted in this election.
Alabama is 60% Republican 40% Democrat,
but 20% of Republicans didn’t show up to vote for Roy Moore. True, he was
ambushed by the Democrats with sexual harassment claims, but he was outmaneuvered
and failed to overcome the accusations. Also, Moore is prone to quote Bible
verses and that makes him a “character”, especially with establishment Republicans.
Democrats are sure to keep the sexual harassment ambush strategy going all the
way to 2020.
Moore’s constituency is “evangelical”
voters who oppose abortion and want to end the War on Christianity. They wanted
a General to lead them in our current civil war.
By 2001 it was clear that Christianity
was under attack by “the establishment”. Roy Moore became a “Culture Warrior
Hero” with “evangelical” Alabama voters when he decided to reinforce the fact
that US law was based on Judeo-Christian law, embodied in the 10 Commandments. See below:
Moore was a West Point graduate, served
in the Army from 1969 to 1974, graduated from the University of Alabama School
of Law and joined the DA’s office as a Prosecutor and became a Circuit Judge in
1992. He became the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2001 and
again in 2012.
Ten Commandments monument controversy
The Ten Commandments
monument in the Alabama Supreme Court building, erected in 2001
Construction and installation
A month after his
election, Moore began making plans for a larger monument to the Ten Commandments, reasoning that
the Alabama Supreme Court building required something grander than a wooden
plaque. His final design involved a 5,280 pound (2,400 kg) granite block, three feet wide by three feet
deep by four feet tall, covered with quotes from the Declaration of
Independence, the national anthem,
and various founding fathers. The crowning element would be two large
carved tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. High-grade granite
from Vermont was ordered and shipped, and Moore found
benefactors and a sculptor to complete the job.
On the evening of July
31, 2001, despite some initial installation difficulties and concerns regarding
structural support for the monument's weight, Moore had the completed monument
transported to the state judicial building and installed in the central
rotunda. The installation was filmed, and videotapes of the event were sold
by Coral Ridge Ministries, an evangelical media outlet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which later used proceeds from the sales of
the film to underwrite Moore's ensuing legal expenses. Coral Ridge was the
operation of the late televangelist Reverend D.
James Kennedy, a staunch Moore
supporter.
The next morning,
Moore held a press conference in the central rotunda to officially unveil the
monument. In a speech following the unveiling, Moore declared, "Today a
cry has gone out across our land for the acknowledgment of that God upon whom
this nation and our laws were founded... May this day mark the restoration of
the moral foundation of law to our people and the return to the knowledge of
God in our land."
Federal lawsuit
Main article: Glassroth v. Moore
On October 30, 2001,
the ACLU of Alabama, Americans
United for Separation of Church and State and the Southern Poverty Law Center were among groups that filed suit in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama,
asking that the monument be removed because it "sends a message to all who
enter the State Judicial Building that the government encourages and endorses
the practice of religion in general and Judeo-Christianity in particular".[39]
The trial,
titled Glassroth v. Moore, began on October 15,
2002. Evidence for the plaintiffs included testimony that lawyers of different religious
beliefs had changed their work practices, including routinely avoiding visiting
the court building to avoid passing by the monument, and testimony that the
monument created a religious atmosphere, with many people using the area for
prayer.
Moore argued that he
would not remove the monument, as doing so would violate his oath of office: [The
monument] serves to remind the Appellate Courts and judges of the Circuit and
District Court of this State and members of the bar who appear before them, as
well as the people of Alabama who visit the Alabama Judicial Building, of the
truth stated in the Preamble to the Alabama Constitution that in order to
establish justice we must invoke 'the favor and guidance of almighty God'.
On this note, Moore
said that the Ten Commandments are the "moral foundation" of U.S.
law, stating that in order to restore this foundation, "we must first
recognize the source from which all morality springs by recognizing the
sovereignty of God." He added that the addition of the monument to the
state judiciary building marked "the beginning of the restoration of the
moral foundation of law to our people" and "a return to the knowledge
of God in our land".
Additionally, Moore
acknowledged an explicit theistic intent in placing the monument, agreeing that
the monument "reflects the sovereignty of God over the affairs of
men" and "acknowledges God's overruling power over the affairs of
men". However, in Moore's view this did not violate the doctrine
of separation of church
and state; as the presiding
judge later summarized it, Moore argued that "the Judeo-Christian God
reigned over both the church and the state in this country, and that both owed
allegiance to that God", although they must keep their affairs separate.
Judgment and appeal
On November 18, 2002,
federal U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued his ruling declaring that the monument violated
the Establishment Clause of the First
Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution and was thus
unconstitutional:
If all Chief Justice
Moore had done were to emphasize the Ten Commandments' historical and
educational importance... or their importance as a model code for good citizenship
... this court would have a much different case before it.
But the Chief Justice
did not limit himself to this; he went far, far beyond. He installed a
two-and-a-half ton monument in the most prominent place in a government
building, managed with dollars from all state taxpayers, with the specific
purpose and effect of establishing a permanent recognition of the 'sovereignty
of God,' the Judeo-Christian God, over all citizens in this country, regardless
of each taxpaying citizen's individual personal beliefs or lack thereof. To
this, the Establishment Clause says no."
Judge Thompson's
decision mandated that Moore remove the monument from the state judicial
building by January 3, 2003, but stayed this order on December 23, 2002, after
Moore appealed the decision to the Eleventh Circuit Court
of Appeals. This appeal was
argued on June 4, 2003, before a three-judge panel in Atlanta, Georgia. On July 1, 2003, the panel issued a ruling upholding the lower
court's decision, agreeing that "the monument fails two of Lemon's three prongs. It violates the Establishment
Clause." Additionally, the court noted that different religious traditions
assign different wordings of the Ten Commandments, meaning that "choosing
which version of the Ten Commandments to display can have religious endorsement
implications".
In response to the
appeals court's decision, Judge Thompson lifted his earlier stay on August 5,
2003, requiring Moore to have the monument removed from public areas of the
state judicial building by August 20.
Protests and monument removal
Rally before the
Alabama State Capitol, August 16, 2003.
On August 14, Moore
announced his intention to defy Judge Thompson's order to have the monument
removed. Two days later, large rallies in support of Moore and the Ten
Commandments monument formed in front of the judicial building, featuring
speakers such as Alan Keyes, the Reverend Jerry
Falwell, and Moore himself.
The crowd peaked at an estimated count of 4,000 that day and anywhere from
several hundred to over a thousand protesters remained through the end of
August.
The time limit for
removal expired on August 20, with the monument still in place in the
building's rotunda. As specified in Judge Thompson's order, the state of
Alabama faced fines of $5,000 a day until the monument was removed. In
response, the eight other members of the Alabama Supreme Court intervened on
August 21, unanimously overruled Moore, and ordered the removal of the
monument.
Moore said that
Thompson, "fearing that I would not obey his order, decided to threaten
other state officials and force them to remove the monument if I did not do so.
A threat of heavy fines was his way of coercing obedience to that order,"
an action that Moore sees as a violation of the Eleventh
Amendment to the United States Constitution.
On August 27, the
monument was moved to a non-public side room in the judicial building. The
monument was not immediately removed from the building for several
reasons—pending legal hearings, the monument's weight, worries that the
monument could break through the floor if it was taken outside intact, and a
desire to avoid confrontation with protesters massed outside the structure. The
monument was not actually removed from the state judicial building until July
19, 2004.
Removal from office
On August 22, 2003,
two days after the deadline for the Ten Commandments monument's removal had
passed, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission (JIC) filed a complaint with
the Alabama Court of the Judiciary (COJ), a panel of judges, lawyers and others
appointed variously by judges, legal leaders, the governor and the lieutenant
governor. The complaint effectively suspended Moore from the Chief Justice
position pending a hearing by the COJ.
The COJ ethics hearing
was held on November 12, 2003. Moore repeated his earlier sentiment that
"to acknowledge God cannot be a violation of the Canons of Ethics. Without
God there can be no ethics." He also acknowledged that he would repeat his
defiance of the court order if given another opportunity to do so, and that if
he returned to office, "I certainly wouldn't leave [the monument] in a
closet, shrouded from the public." In closing arguments, the Assistant
Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the
entire workings of the judicial system... What message does that send to the
public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court
order, you don't have to follow it." Moore had previously stated his
belief that the order was unlawful, and that compliance with such an order was
not an enforceable mandate.
The next day, the COJ
issued a unanimous opinion ruling that "Chief Justice Moore has violated
the Alabama Canons of Judicial Ethics as alleged by the JIC in its
complaint." The COJ had several disciplinary options, including censure or
suspension without pay, but because Moore's responses had indicated he would
defy any similar court orders in the future, the COJ concluded that "under
these circumstances, there is no penalty short of removal from office that
would resolve this issue." Moore was immediately removed from his
post.
Moore appealed the
COJ's ruling to the Supreme Court of Alabama on December 10, 2003. A special
panel of retired judges and justices was randomly selected to hear the case.
Moore argued that the COJ did not consider the underlying legality of the federal
courts' order that the monument be removed from the courthouse. The Alabama
Supreme Court rejected this argument, saying that the COJ did not have the
authority to overrule the federal courts, only to determine whether Moore
violated the Canons of Judicial Ethics. Therefore, the Court reasoned, it was
enough to show that a procedurally-valid order was in place against Moore.
Moore also argued that the COJ had imposed a religious test on him to hold his
office, and that the COJ's actions had violated his own rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court of
Alabama rejected each of these arguments as well, and ruled on April 30, 2004
that the COJ had acted properly. The court also upheld the sanction of removal
as appropriate.
Return to the bench
Moore sought to return
to the bench, and in the March 2012 Republican primary for chief justice of
Alabama, Moore won the Republican nomination, defeating the sitting Chief
Justice Chuck Malone (who had been appointed by Governor Bentley the previous
year) and Mobile County Circuit Judge Charles Graddick.
In the November 2012
general election, Moore defeated the Democratic nominee, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Bob Vance, and returned to the bench. Moore received 913,021 votes,
to Vance's 850,816 votes.
No comments:
Post a Comment