November 15, 2003

On Friday, Nov. 14, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore told Fox's Hannity & Colmes that "defying a court order is necessary when that court order is unlawful, and you're there sworn to uphold the rule of law."

Justice Moore made this assertion a day following his removal from office for disobeying a federal judge's ruling that public acknowledgement of God was illegal.

"The rule of law is above judges," Justice Moore maintained, "and when a federal district judge doesn't know how to define the words in the statute, then all he can do is rule according to his feelings and predilections, and then he makes law rather than interprets law. And that's what happened in this case."

When asked if regular citizens had the right to disobey a judge's order, Moore responded, "If that order were unlawful, they could commit civil disobedience, because the rule of law is not what a judge says, the rule of law is the Constitution and the words, and if it plainly disputes the statute, then it can't be the rule of law."

Moore added that he knew the likely consequences, professionally, of his unwavering stance against the federal judiciary:

"I knew that to acknowledge God as a public official today creates a dangerous situation--and that's unfortunate in our country which is established upon the acknowledgment of God and of the laws of nature and nature's God."

Judge Moore then produced a transcript of an exchange between him and the prosecutor at his trial before a state judicial tribunal, Attorney General Bill Pryor. The exchange went as follows:

Pryor: "Mr. Chief Justice, in your understanding, is it the federal court ordered that you could not acknowledge God? Isn't that right?"

Moore: "Yes."

Pryor: "And if you resume your duties as Chief Justice after this proceeding, you will continue to acknowledge God as you have testified that you would today?"

Moore: "That's right."

Pryor: "No matter what any other official says?"

Moore: "Absolutely. Without--let me clarify that--without an acknowledgment of God, I cannot do my duties. I must acknowledge God. It says so in the Constitution of Alabama, it says so in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. It says so in everything I've read."

Pryor: "The only point I am trying to clarify, Mr. Chief Justice, is not why, but only that, in fact, if you do resume your duties as Chief Justice, you will continue to do that without regard to what any other official says. Isn't that right?"

Moore: "I must."

See:

• Transcript of Justice Moore on Hannity & Colmes

• "Alan Keyes to hold press conference on the removal of Chief Justice Roy Moore" (Nov. 14)

• "An Eye-Witness Account Of Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments Inquisition," by Chuck Baldwin (Nov. 15)

• "Ten Commandments judge removed from bench" (Nov. 13)

• "Trial of Alabama Chief Justice Moore begins" (Nov. 11)

• "Court stays out of Ten Commandments fight" (Nov. 5)