November (Web-only) 2002

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

Ala. Chief Justice Roy Moore vows to appeal
Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore says the fight over a Ten Commandments display in the state's judicial building isn't over. "I have no plans to remove the monument, and when I do, I will let you know personally," he told reporters yesterday as he stood in front of the 5,300-pound edifice. "We will lodge an immediate appeal, and if an order is issued regarding the movement of the monument, we'll take that up with a higher court."

The appeal will focus on U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson's reluctance to define religion, Moore said. "I submit that if the court can't define the word religion, it has no business telling the state of Alabama or anybody else what they can and can't do with relation to God," the chief justice said.

One of Moore's attorneys, Phillip Jauregui, further laid out the basis of the appeal: "The constitutional question is whether [the monument] establishes a religion. And in order to answer that question, you've got to know what religion is. The court has essentially said, 'I don't know what religion is, but you've established it.' We have a tremendous amount of respect for Judge Thompson—he's a federal judge—but I've got to tell you, that's shocking and that's not legal reading. It goes against everything we've done in the Constitution, it goes against history, it goes against fact and it goes against the law."

But Thompson was explicit in his decision that religion shouldn't be defined. "Indeed, the chief justice's definition of religion proves, if anything, that it is unwise, and even dangerous, to put forth, as a matter of law, one definition of religion under the First Amendment," he wrote in his decision.

Moore will also ask the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ...