September (Web-only) 2003

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Roy Moore criticizes Commandments display
You would think that suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore would be happy about his governor's new display of the Ten Commandments, which was installed Tuesday in the old Supreme Court library room in the Capitol. But he's not. Actually, it's the posting of the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, and the Declaration of Independence along with the Ten Commandments that Moore is upset about.

"To put things around the Ten Commandments and secularize it is to deny the greatness of God," Moore told supporters at a banquet to raise money for his legal defense.

Still, if Moore's main point was that Alabama law is based upon the principles in the Ten Commandments, isn't it also based on those other documents as well? That's the idea, says Gov. Bob Riley. "Just as the Ten Commandments are exhibited in similar displays in the U.S. Supreme Court and in our nation's Capitol building, I feel it is important to display them in our Capitol, as well," he said. "Visitors to Montgomery can now read and learn about those historical documents upon which our system of laws rests."

In related news, Arkansas judge David Pake has changed the Ten Commandments display on his courtroom law, adding the Declaration of Independence, selections from the codes of Hammurabi and Justinian, and quotes from British legal scholar Sir William Blackstone. Polk County, Florida, yesterday installed a 7-foot granite monument that includes the Ten Commandments, along with 11 other documents. That monument is being unveiled today. Other commandments controversies around the country keep rolling along, too.

California forestry service drops firefighter chaplains Faced with a lawsuit from six state firefighters, the California ...