MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A stand-in Supreme Court yesterday unanimously rejected Roy Moore’s bid to be reinstated as Alabama’s chief justice, the latest and perhaps final legal chapter in the saga surrounding his Ten Commandments monument.
Moore spokeswoman Jessica Atteberry said court officials informed Mr. Moore’s attorney that the court upheld his ouster 7-0. The court’s written opinion was to be released yesterday afternoon, and details were not immediately available.
Mr. Moore was expelled from office by an ethics panel for refusing to obey a federal court order to move his 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.
Seven retired judges were selected to serve on the replacement Supreme Court that heard Mr. Moore’s appeal of the ouster.
“The elected representatives of the people, the eight associate justices of the Alabama Supreme Court, hid behind the robes of an illegally appointed, politically selected court,” Mr. Moore said. “It is political in nature. This is about the acknowledgment of God and many judges can’t admit they are wrong and that they can enter unlawful orders.”
In arguments before the replacement court, appointed after the elected justices stepped down, Mr. Moore’s attorneys said federal courts have no right to interfere in states’ acknowledgments of God, and that Mr. Moore was not bound to obey a court order that violated his oath of office.
The state’s attorneys countered that it would lead to anarchy if judges could choose which orders to obey.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.