|
|
July 11, 2003/Tamuz 11 5763, Vol. 55, No.46
Alabama attorney seeks to jettison 'Ten Commandments' monument
LARRY BROOK
Deep South Jewish Voice
MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The plaintiff in the lawsuit against Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument actually thinks the monument "is very nice."
The 5,280-pound granite monument in the state Judicial Building's rotunda "would look very good in a proper setting," Montgomery attorney Stephen Glassroth said.
"I didn't think it to be particularly appropriate in the state Judicial Building or appropriate for a state official to be proselytizing his particular brand" of religion.
That is why Glassroth and two other attorneys filed suit against Moore.
On Nov. 18, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled that the monument violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
And on July 1, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld that ruling.
For Glassroth, last week's ruling marks the latest - but not necessarily the last - chapter in a case that has catapulted the Jewish attorney to national attention.
Reacting to his latest legal setback, Moore told reporters last week that the federal courts are "simply wrong to conclude that we cannot recognize the sovereignty of God."
He argues that the whole of American law comes from the inalienable rights given to each person by God, not by government, and that as a government official it is his duty to acknowledge God's role in the nation's life.
Moore has not decided what course of action to take following this ruling. He has three weeks to request a rehearing or 90 days to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.
The chain of events began in 1994, when Moore was a circuit court judge in Etowah County. A letter went out advising judges to cease having clergy offer prayers during court sessions, and to remove religious displays from courtrooms.
Moore refused to discontinue having exclusively Protestant clergy offer prayers, and refused to remove a hand-carved Ten Commandments display.
Two members of the Alabama Freethought Association, with assistance from the American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit, making Moore a folk hero in the Bible Belt.
That case was dismissed for "lack of standing," but the State of Alabama then filed suit to force a ruling that the practices were not unconstitutional. The Alabama Supreme Court dismissed that case as "nonjusticiable."
In 2000, Moore ran for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, with the nickname "the Ten Commandments Judge."
After his inauguration, he quietly commissioned the monument, not using any public funding and not alerting any of his colleagues at the state Supreme Court.
The granite monument has a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments on top, with quotes from historical figures below.
The quotes about religion in public life are not on the same plane as the Ten Commandments because "speech of any man alongside the revealed law of God would diminish the very purpose of the Ten Commandments monument," Moore explained.
Thompson, the District Court judge who heard the case, was concerned about that entanglement.
"It could be argued that Coral Ridge's religious activity is being sponsored and financially supported by the chief justice's installation of the monument as a government official."
Glassroth was out of town at a conference when Moore first installed the monument. The day after returning to Montgomery, Glassroth went to see the stone.
"I was really stunned by it," he said.
Later, he spoke with Morris Dees, head of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that combats hate and discrimination.
"I told him how angry it made me, and how out of place I felt in a building that seemed to be preaching 'Enter ye those who subscribe to our faith,' " Glassroth said.
Finally, he told Dees that Moore should be sued.
Glassroth figures his work takes him to the Judicial Building about 40 times a year. He is a member of the Alabama Sentencing Commission, which meets there. The state law library is also there, and he often has cases in the appellate court.
Glassroth shrugs aside questions of reactions to what is clearly an unpopular stance in Alabama.
He is heartened by the outpouring of messages of support, including from religious Christians "who understand the importance of keeping religion a private matter."
"If you live half a century and can't do something on principle, life becomes less significant and meaningful," Glassroth said. "This is something important for me, and it's about time I take a principled stand on something other than my work."
|
