Ten Commandments Judge Should Keep Fighting, Alabama Christian Leader Says
by Allie Martin
May 3, 2004
(AgapePress) - The battle by Alabama's former chief justice to get his job back may end up at the United States Supreme Court.Last Friday the Alabama Supreme Court denied an appeal by former chief justice Roy Moore to be reinstated to state court and decided to remove him permanently from office. An ethics panel had expelled Moore for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building.
John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, says he is not surprised that the state Supreme Court justices denied Moore's appeal. He believes the ousted judge should take his fight to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"I would encourage him," Giles says, "to the fullest extent of the law, to try to get his job back. The majority of Alabamans put him on the bench, and the majority of Alabamans do not approve of him being removed from the bench, so that's only the right thing to do."
The Christian Coalition of Alabama spokesman feels justice has not been served in Moore's case. Furthermore, he says the fact that a Ten Commandments display is currently on exhibit in the state judicial building along with other historical documents shows that there is a double standard at work in Moore's case.
"In the Alabama Capitol, the Ten Commandments are on display," Giles notes, "and yet Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments, somehow or another, were unconstitutional. What this kind of points towards is that this was not about the removal of a monument, but the removal of a man."
Giles says the decision by Alabama's Supreme Court indicates the need to pass Ten Commandments legislation in the state.
