So Help Me God

"So Help Me God" is the title of the book former Alabama Supreme Court Justice, Roy Moore, wrote. Those are the words that Alabamians will be uttering if Roy Moore gets his way.

Moore declared today that he is running for the governor of Alabama. Moore's was expelled from his last job, a State Supreme Court Justice, because he has no respect for the law. Just in case you did not follow the controversy that unfolded in 2003 and 2004, Judge Moore dropped a 5,300-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments in the lobby of the Supreme Court House. A federal court ruled the monument in the rotunda to be an unconstitutional cross between church and state. Moore appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States, loosing at every level.

Even after loosing in the Supreme Court, Moore defied the court orders to remove the monument, and instead, rallied a protest outside the building. I find it disconcerting when elected officials feel that biblical law is more important than the constitution. I have no problem with them following it in their personal lives, but when it comes to the courtroom, the constitution IS the highest law of the land.

If elected, I am sure he would also ignore federal court orders saying that replacing biology class with bible study is also unconstitutional. But, I can hope that the people of Alabama are smart enough to never allow him into the Governor's mansion.

Ousted Ala. Justice to Run for Governor

By PHILLIP RAWLS

GADSDEN, Ala. - Roy Moore, who became a hero to the Christian right after being ousted as Alabama's chief justice for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse, announced Monday that he is running for governor in 2006.

Moore's candidacy could set up a showdown with Gov. Bob Riley, a fellow Republican, and turn the Ten Commandments dispute into a central campaign issue in this Bible Belt state.

Two Democrats, Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley and former Gov. Don Siegelman, are already running. The Republican and Democratic primaries are June 6.

In 2000, Alabama voters elected Moore as chief justice of the state Supreme Court, and the next summer he had a 5,300-pound granite monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the rotunda of the state judicial building. A federal judge ordered Moore to remove the monument, but Moore refused.

His fellow justices had the monument moved to a storage site out of public view. And in November 2003, a state judicial court kicked Moore out of office for defying the federal court.

Moore took appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and lost at every level.

(Full Story)