l****z 发帖数: 29846 | 1 By JIM VAN ANGLEN, Associated Press
November 22, 2011
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The former top Alabama judge known for refusing to
remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse said Tuesday
that he's seeking to regain his old job as chief justice of the Alabama
Supreme Court.
Eight years after Roy Moore was removed from the post because of the
monument dispute, he announced that he would run for the position again at a
news conference on the steps of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery
. The 64-year-old Republican addressed the dispute in his remarks to the
media.
"I have no plans to move the monument to Montgomery," he said, but added
that he will continue to acknowledge God.
Current Chief Justice Chuck Malone and Charlie Graddick, a former attorney
general who's now a circuit judge in Mobile, are already running in the
Republican primary on March 13. No Democrat has announced.
Moore has said that lots of people have encouraged him to enter the
Republican primary. He has said he does not believe getting in the race
behind the other two GOP candidates will hurt him, adding that he is well-
known and voters know his judicial philosophy is conservative.
Moore became a judge in 1992 when Republican Gov. Guy Hunt appointed him to
a vacant circuit judgeship in Gadsden. He attracted national attention in a
legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union over his practice of
opening court sessions with prayer and displaying a homemade plaque of the
Ten Commandments in his courtroom.
After being elected chief justice in 2000, he had a 5,280-pound granite
monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the lobby of the state
judicial building in Montgomery. That set off more legal battles, which he
lost. A trial court for judges removed him in 2003 over his refusal to abide
by a federal judge's order to remove the display.
The monument currently sits at a church and school in Gadsden.
Since getting kicked out as chief justice, Moore has made two runs for
governor. He lost the 2006 Republican primary to incumbent Bob Riley and
finished fourth in the GOP primary 2010.
In the spring, he formed an exploratory committee to consider a Republican
run for president, but dropped it. Moore said he drew good crowds during
speaking engagements in Iowa, the first caucus state, and South Carolina, an
early primary state, but couldn't generate the money needed to seriously
consider a campaign. |
|