Constitution Restoration Act Will Curb Judicial Activism, Judge Moore Says

by Allie Moore and Jenni Parker
April 7, 2004

(AgapePress) - Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore says recent events such as the debate over homosexual marriage and the challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance show that the United States needs to return to the true God worshipped by the nation's founders.

Moore made national headlines last summer when he refused a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of Alabama's Supreme Court judicial building. The judge insisted that he was bound -- not only by conscience, but by the Constitution of the State of Alabama -- to uphold the right to acknowledge God publicly.

Moore was eventually removed from his position on the Alabama Supreme Court bench, but he has remained firm in his position on the issue. An appeal over his dismissal from office is pending, but in the meantime, the "Ten Commandments Judge" is on a new mission -- to educate Christians about the role of the courts and God in government.

Moore says when a country refuses to acknowledge God, loss of liberty and eventual anarchy will result. "If we don't stand up for the acknowledgment of God we will lose our rights," he says, "and we are losing our rights today. That's why marriage is being such an issue today -- it's because we are not recognizing the moral foundation of our law."

Moore insists that America's moral foundation does not come from men's whims or men's feelings, or from the attitudes of activist judges who legislate from the bench. "It comes from God," he says, but lamentably, "it's the courts who are messing up our society."

The former chief justice turned religious-liberty advocate has been working to encourage support for a bill known as the Constitution Restoration Act. That bill, also known as H.R. 3799, would limit the jurisdiction of federal courts in certain cases and promote federalism.

Moore believes the provisions of the Constitution Restoration Act are greatly needed to control America's runaway federal judiciary. The legislation, currently pending in Congress, would allow lawmakers to impeach Supreme Court justices who make faulty rulings, exceed their jurisdiction, or rely on anything other than the U.S. constitutional and English common law in their interpretation and application of the U.S. Constitution. (See Related Story)

According to Moore, the bill simply recognizes the proper jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court. "It says the United States Supreme Court doesn't have jurisdiction to tell us we can't acknowledge God. And if we can acknowledge God, we've restored the moral foundation of our law," he says, "because we acknowledge a higher authority in government -- a higher standard of right and wrong than what men can dream up."

Moore says concerned Christians should contact their senators and members of Congress to encourage them to pass the Constitution Restoration Act.