Scott, STOP IT !!!
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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: rolltidefan [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 12:52 PM
Subject: [RollTideFan] Alabama Justices Order Removal of Ten
CommandmentsMonument
Alabama Justices Order Removal of Ten Commandments Monument, Subject of
Court Deadline
By Bob Johnson Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 21, 2003
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - State Supreme Court justices overruled Chief
Justice Roy Moore on Thursday and directed that his Ten Commandments
monument be removed from its public site in the Alabama Judicial Building.
The senior associate justice, Gorman Houston, said the eight associate
justices instructed the building's manager to take all steps necessary to
comply ... as soon as practicable.
A federal judge had ruled the monument violates the constitution's ban on
government establishment of religion and must be removed from its public
place in the rotunda. He had set Thursday as his deadline, but Moore said he
would not move it.
The associate justices wrote that they are bound by solemn oath to follow
the law, whether they agree or disagree with it.
The monument was briefly walled off from public view Thursday as U.S.
District Judge Myron Thompson's deadline passed for the marker to be out of
public sight. Then the plywood-like wall came down, displaying the monument
again.
Houston said the building manager may have put up the partition in order
for the state to be in compliance until the associate justices made a
decision. Their seven-page order, signed by all eight, was issued about 10
a.m. The partition had blocked public view of the monument from about 6:30
a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Moore's spokesman, Tom Parker, said Moore was out of town for a family
funeral but decided to return to Montgomery when he learned the monument had
been walled from public view.
This is an example of what is happening in this country: the
acknowledgment of God as the moral foundation of law in this nation is being
hidden from us, Moore said in a statement issued by Parker.
But attorney Ayesha Khan, an attorney for the plaintiffs fighting to get
the monument removed, said the associate justices' decision just shows what
an extremist Roy Moore is, than all eight of the other justices are refusing
to stand with him.
Earlier, another plaintiffs' attorney, Richard Cohen, said a motion was
filed with Thompson asking that Moore be held in contempt. It was not
immediately clear if the associate justices' action would make the motion
moot. Thompson, who had threatened to fine the state $5,000 a day, had not
been expected to take up the matter until Friday.
Dozens of Moore supporters remained outside the building Thursday morning,
kneeling in prayer. Supporters had sung and prayed outside the building
throughout the day Wednesday as those inside were removed from the rotunda
in handcuffs when they refused to leave voluntarily.
A total of 21 protesters were arrested and taken to the Montgomery County
Jail, where they were charged with trespassing. Most were released on their
recognizance.
The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected Moore's emergency plea for a stay of
the federal court order Wednesday afternoon, declining at least for the time
being to be drawn into the dispute.
Moore, who installed the 5,300-pound granite monument in the rotunda of
the judicial building two years ago in the middle of the night, said
afterward that he did not consider the case over. He had said he still
planned to appeal to the Supreme Court on the merits of the case. ... (snip)
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGA7QQ9YMJD.html
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