Moore barred from duties

Moore barred from duties

08/23/03

STAN BAILEY
News staff writer

MONTGOMERY - Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore was disqualified from performing the duties of his office Friday when the state Judicial Inquiry Commission formally accused him of violating state judicial ethics.

The nine-member commission filed a six-count charge with the state Court of the Judiciary citing Moore's refusal to obey a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building.

Moore's suspension came after U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson earlier Friday gave the state an extra week to remove the monument because the other eight Supreme Court justices had voted to overrule Moore and remove the monument from the rotunda.

Under state law, Moore cannot act as chief justice pending a decision on the charges by the Court of the Judiciary. Moore has 30 days to respond to the charges, after which a trial date will be set. If acquitted, he would return to his duties. If convicted, he could be censured, suspended without pay or permanently removed from office. If Moore were removed from office, the governor could appoint a replacement.

Justice Gorman Houston, senior associate justice of the state Supreme Court, will be acting chief justice while the charges are pending.

Tom Parker, spokesman for Moore, said the chief justice left the judicial building before the complaint was served Friday and would respond to it Monday.

But the commission's action drew sharp criticism from Moore supporters who have maintained a prayer vigil on the judicial building steps since Wednesday, the deadline Thompson gave for removing the monument passed.

John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, said the commission made "a very serious mistake."

"They are trying to take down one of America's finest," Giles said. "We stand with Chief Justice Roy Moore and the majority of the country stands with Chief Justice Roy Moore. This is far from over."

Dean Young of Gadsden, executive director of the Christian Family Association, added that Gov. Bob Riley, Attorney General Bill Pryor and the eight justices who voted to remove the monument "will reap what they have sown" in the political arena when they next face the state's voters.

Riley and his wife, Patsy, are praying for and thinking of Moore, said David Azbell, Riley's press secretary.

"When the governor heard the news, he said Chief Justice Moore is innocent until proven guilty," Azbell said.

Pryor to prosecute:

Pryor's office will represent the Judicial Inquiry Commission and prosecute Moore at his trial. The attorney general had supported keeping the Ten Commandments monument in the judicial building, but he said it was his responsibility to enforce a federal court's order if Moore defied it.

"I'm hopeful this can be resolved very soon so that the people of Alabama can move forward one way or another," Pryor said. "These are very serious charges. There needs to be a fair and impartial proceeding, and we need to resolve it."

Phillip Jauregui, Moore's attorney, said he was disappointed by the commission's action. "The absolute defense to all of these charges is that the chief justice's placement of the monument does not violate the Constitution, and that issue is before the U.S. Supreme Court."

Jauregui said he and Moore met with the commission at its invitation for about 15 minutes Friday and found the panel cordial.

"The commission didn't have any questions for us. They just gave us the opportunity to share anything with them that we wanted to share, and we explained to them that every issue before the commission and every issue before the courts that we've talked to is the rule of law," said Jauregui.

"The rule of law in this case," he said, "is the First Amendment. ... What the chief has done does not violate the First Amendment in that the district court's order is contrary to the First Amendment."

`Logistical issues':

Also Friday, lawyers in the case talked by telephone conference with Thompson. Afterward, Pryor said he had told Thompson he would prefer not to discuss when and how the monument would be removed "because there were both logistical issues here and security, and the court said that he totally understood both considerations."

Pryor said Moore committed during the telephone conference that he would not interfere with the removal of the monument, since the order issued by the other justices was directed to the building manager rather than at him.

Ayesha Khan of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is representing plaintiffs in the suit to remove the monument, predicted Friday that the battle may be about over. "The clowns are getting back in the car. The tents are being folded up. The circus is about to leave town," she said.

But the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington-based Christian Defense Coalition, which is sponsoring the prayer vigil, isn't backing down. He called on Christians Friday to fill the plaza in front of the state judicial building and has threatened civil disobedience to block removal of the monument.

"We are here. The monument is still here. This will not deter us. It will not stop us," Mahoney said.

Rhonda Brownstein of the Southern Poverty Law Center, representing plaintiffs in the suit to remove the monument, said Moore's suspension "is entirely appropriate. His defiance of the federal court order obviously violated the Alabama canon of judicial ethics requiring him to `respect and comply with the law.' Chief Justice Moore left the JIC with no choice."

Process set in 1973:

The process used in this case is unusual but not unheard of. University of Alabama professor emeritus William Stewart said the JIC was set up in the 1973 revision of the Alabama Constitution's judicial article. Since then, Stewart could not recall the suspension of any chief justice.

But Associate Justice Harold See, a sitting member of the Supreme Court, was temporarily disqualified from serving when the JIC accused him in July 2000 of violating judicial ethics rules in campaign ads.

The ads accusing his opponent, Moore, of being soft on drug defendants. See was restored to the bench after he filed suit in federal court alleging that his right of free speech had been violated. The JIC eventually dropped the complaint against See.

Circuit Judge Randall L. Cole of Fort Payne now sits as the head of the nine-member commission, which is made up of other judges, lawyers and businesspeople.

Before the JIC's charges were filed Friday, Mahoney and several Moore supporters went to the commission's offices and prayed that Moore wouldn't be charged with violating the ethics rules. Mahoney and the group were ordered to leave the building, and after a quick prayer in a hallway, they did.

Moore supporters gathered outside the federal courthouse at noon and burned copies of Thompson's order and other federal orders with which they disagreed. They called the federal judge a sinner and a lawbreaker and asked Christians to start a "second American Revolution."

"The federal courts, and this one in particular, have sinned against God. This decision is an abomination," said Flip Benham, director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue.

"Myron Thompson, you have broken the law of almighty God," Benham said as the flames added to the sweltering heat of the midday sun, prompting a police officer to get a fire extinguisher.

The demonstrators:

Demonstrators have included many people from outside Alabama. Fifteen members of a church from Wichita, Kan., drove or flew to Alabama to show support for Moore. Its members said they were surprised more Alabamians weren't participating.

David Daniel of Centreville, a gray-bearded man in overalls who said he came as an individual and didn't represent any group, stayed close to the glass doors of the rotunda as most of the crowd left for the protest at the federal court.

Daniel said he stayed to watch the monument because "compliance with the federal orders could come at any time, and they could remove the monument from the building, and if that should happen, someone should be here to protest it."

Larry Darby, director of the Alabama chapter of American Atheists, said that listening to the crowd rail against federal judges, he had to wonder how many times the South would try to fight the Civil War.

"Some parts have been amusing. Some parts have been a little bit scary," Darby said.

News staff writers Kim Chandler, David White and Thomas Spencer contributed to this report.