Chief Justice Roy Moore Responds To Federal Court Ruling

Chief Justice Roy Moore says yesterday's ruling by a federal appeals court against the Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Judicial Building ignores the Alabama and U.S. Constitutions.

Moore read a statement to reporters this morning, standing in front of the 53-hundred-pound monument he had moved into the rotunda of the judicial building in the middle of the night two summers ago. After reading the statement, Moore remained in the rotunda but deferred questions to his attorney, Phillip Jauregui. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously agreed with an order from Federal Judge Myron Thompson that the monument violates the U.S. Constitution's prohibition on government promotion of religion.

Thompson ordered the monument removed from the judicial building, but delayed that order while Moore appealed. Neither Moore nor Jauregui would say whether they will agree to remove the monument if the lose all appeals.