Standoff at Roy's Rock

Ala

bama Chief Justice Roy Moore has long displayed a reverence — or obsession, depending on your point of view — for the Ten Commandments. The Scripture has been a good calling card for Moore, gaining him notoriety far beyond the realm of circuit-court judges after he first decorated his courtroom in 1995 with a hand-carved rosewood plaque bearing God's laws. He prevailed over civil libertarians who sued for its removal, and rode his fame even further in 2000, when he was elected chief justice of Alabama's supreme court on the slogan "Roy Moore: Still the Ten Commandments Judge." But while he earned folk-hero status among Evangelicals and conservatives, last week he finally pushed the legal establishment too far when he ignored a federal court order to remove his largest monument to the Commandments, a 5,280-lb. granite carving known as Roy's Rock. Moore and some helpers had installed the sculpture in the rotunda of the state's judicial building during off-hours one night in 2001.

In a stunning show of defiance by a jurist, Moore disregarded the urging of all eight of his fellow supreme court justices and Alabama's attorney general to comply with the federal ruling that the religious artifact is inappropriate in a court of law. Instead Moore declared, to the amens of supporters gathered on the building's portico, "I will never, never deny the God upon whom our laws and country depend." The hundreds of protesters had flocked to Moore's monument last week as if to a revival, carrying Bibles, wooden crosses and placards with phrases like KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS. DUMP THE FEDS. But within 24 hours of Moore's speech, his judicial colleagues suspended him from the bench and ordered him to face trial before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which can remove judges for ethical violations.

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The legal case, brought by several civil-liberties groups, is virtually open and shut. Moore's lawyers had argued that U.S. law is founded on the Ten Commandments, which are displayed, more subtly and often surrounded by secular legal symbols, in other government buildings around the country. But federal District Judge Myron Thompson said in his ruling that Roy's Rock is "nothing less than an obtrusive year-round religious display... The only way to miss the religious or nonsecular appearance of the monument would be to walk through the Alabama State Judicial Building with one's eyes closed." A federal appeals court agreed, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to issue a stay in the case. Moore has said he plans to file an appeal with the Supreme Court by late September, but legal experts don't expect the court to take it. "[Moore] does not have any laws of man to stand on," says University of Alabama law professor Bryan K. Fair. "He's claiming to stand on the laws of God. Apparently he has some difficulty recognizing the separate spheres of his own creed and the laws of the people of Alabama."

Moore's supporters have compared him to Martin Luther King, to Daniel, and even to Moses. The son of a construction worker, Moore, 56, grew up in northeast Alabama and worshipped at a Baptist church, not "an overbearing church where they shout and dance around," says his brother Jerry, "just a nice little country church." Moore graduated from West Point, served in Vietnam in the military police and earned his law degree at the University of Alabama. After losing a hard-fought election for circuit judge in 1982, Moore turned from law to more exotic battles, training as a kickboxer and wrangling cattle in Australia.

It was at this stage in his life that Moore carved his plaque of the Ten Commandments and, after being appointed as a circuit judge, hung it in his courtroom and started making headlines. The first lawsuit seeking to remove it was ultimately dismissed on a technicality. His victories in the court of public opinion, however, have been more decisive. He won his chief-justice post with 54% of the vote, and in a July poll of Alabama residents, 77% said they approve of his stone monument. His popularity has led to speculation that Moore is angling for higher office, although his staff denies that. In the meantime, however, his current job depends largely on whether he decides to obey the commandments of his legal colleagues.