Alabama extremist unfit to judge

"Roy's rock" is the informal name given the 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court had installed in the dead of night in the lobby of the state judicial building. The rock is about to go, and it's too bad Moore isn't going out the door with it.

Spouting defiant drivel, Moore has refused to remove the giant religious statue despite a federal court order that gave him until midnight Wednesday to do so. Moore's bizarre claims that he, as head of a state high court, is not subject to lower and intermediate federal courts show just how warped he is. Moore is obviously relishing this controversy, seeing himself as some kind of folk hero to the faithful.

His resistance to a federal court order is reminiscent of the late Gov. George C. Wallace's defiant stand against desegregation, a stand he came to regret and apologized for before he died.

Following his failure to get the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the order, Moore said, "If they want to get the commandments, they're going to have to get me first."

By flagrantly defying the order of a federal court, Moore has violated judicial canons and is no longer fit to be a judge. The spectacle he is encouraging - with religious zealots showing up to block any attempt to move the monument - is making a mockery of justice in the state. Not that we expect the officials in Alabama to have the courage to do what is right. Nearly every politician in the state, from the governor on down, has either stood with Moore or taken political cover.

It was left to the remaining eight associate justices to step in and uphold the rule of law. On Thursday, the state justices countermanded Moore and ordered the monument moved from public view. That they waited until after the federal court deadline to act suggests that they were more concerned with the $5,000-a-day fine threatened by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson than with the principle of church-state separation. But at least they finally did their duty.

Many fine jurists in this country have strong religious beliefs. The difference between them and Moore is that they do not try to force their religious views on the public. They do not use their position to dispense sermons rather than justice. And they respect the law.

Moore is more than just an embarrassment to the Alabama judiciary. He is an extremist who puts his religious views ahead of the law. He is unfit to sit on any court.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times 490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 Contact the Times | Privacy Policy Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright