Constitutional Law, Courts, Religion, Society

He’s Baaaack: Roy Moore Elected Chief Justice of Alabama Supreme Court

You remember Roy Moore. He was the Alabama judge who was challenged by the ACLU for posting a copy of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom and began jury deliberations with a prayer for divine guidance. He became the personification of the movement in the United States to reduce the wall of separation between Church and State. Most people assumed that he has returned to well-deserved obscurity. Well guess again. As of last night, he is again the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.


Moore was not only known for his contempt for separation principles (a trend that I have written about) but his contempt for basic principles of the rule of law. He was removed after refusing to obey a federal judge’s order to remove a 5,200-pound granite Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the Alabama Judicial Building. He was later investigated for the misuse of funds of Coral Ridge Ministries for his defense (though no charges were filed).

Moore was elected with the support of that towering legal figure, Chuck Norris, who called him a “true patriot.”

For his part, Moore told supporters last night to “go home with the knowledge that we are going to stand for the acknowledgment of God.” The crowd reportedly responded appropriately with “Amen.”

Source: AL.Com

128 thoughts on “He’s Baaaack: Roy Moore Elected Chief Justice of Alabama Supreme Court”

  1. Mike,

    I’m down with all of that. That’s why I said almost racist. I don’t think Malcolm X was a racist. He was surrounded by a bunch of racists, sure, but as you point to his pre-Haj distancing from Muhammad I think points to his recognition of the folly of the “whitey is the devil” approach.

  3. Apparently Reverend/Judge Moore thinks there are two kinds of law, “organic law” and the stuff he’s supposed to practice in his day job. From past actions he can’t be trusted to keep them separate. He should not be on the bench IMO.
    *
    Oct 24, 2012

    ‘Ten Commandments’ Judge Roy Moore: God punishing the U.S. over marriage equality and abortion”

    “Speaking to around 100 anti-abortion supporters at the Stand Up for Religious Freedom rally on Saturday, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said that “Satan is out to destroy everything that God has created.”

    “This is not just about religion, this is about law; the organic law of our country,” the candidate explained. “When they pretended to give the right of choice to that woman, they took away the right of life to that child.”

    Moore added that Satan was also “convincing many in our land that they can form a marriage between the same gender. My, how God must be sad about this. He has a controversy with the inhabitants of this land, and until we reject those evils, we shall suffer accordingly.” ….

    “Earlier this year, Moore told conservative talk show host Steve Deace that secular government would eventually lead to Islamic law in the United States because “a government that is denying God” allowed Sharia law to take hold.”

    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/24/ten-commandments-judge-roy-moore-god-punishing-the-u-s-over-marriage-equality-and-abortion/#comment-691261936

  9. I know I’m right about Malcolm X, but “prolific racist” was not my terminology. I said “almost [. . .] racist”. I did so purposefully. His early rhetoric was often overheated and some might consider it racist, but I consider it in the context of the times. He was an agitator using deliberately provocative language, but he was an expert rhetorician and a student of human nature. I suspect his epiphany at Mecca had more to do with realizing the heat of his rhetoric was “burning more than it was cooking” and that any solution to the racial strife of his era was going to have to be multiracial in origin in order to be effective.

    1. Gene,

      To me the deal with Malcolm X was that he was a Black man from a family that had been torn apart in his youth. He was a youth with extraordinary intelligence, who given the times, looked for his success through criminal activities. I prison he was recruited into the “Black Muslim” movement of Elijah Muhammad, which was an offshoot of the beliefs of Marcus Garvey.

      The beliefs of Muhammad were in clean living through a Muslim lifestyle and separation from the “White Devils” who oppressed them They were against the idea of integration with whites and instead wanted their own piece of the U.S. set aside for Blacks. What was curious about the “Black Muslim” movement was they appealed to the segregationists and in fact there was a famous Life Magazine photo showing a lone “Black Muslim” at a Ku Klux Klan convention.

      On a positive side this movement was extremely entrepreneurial, setting up numerous small businesses in Black communities. They also fought against the use of drugs like heroin in their community. They believed in marriage and true to Islamic tradition were against the use of stimulants like Alcohol and coffee. What Whites found so shocking about them was their disdain for White Culture and their rejection of even interaction with Whites. It was almost comical back the that Whites were offended by them hating “White People” for their maltreatment of Blacks. Part of the reason for Malcolm Little, becoming Malcolm X, was the rejection by the movement of their last names, which their families were give as slaves. This too was ironically found threatening by many Whites at the time. They believed in on-violence, but they would not suffer indiscriminate racist attacks on Blacks.

      The were not part of the initial Civil Rights Movement because they considered the NAACP and Urban League to be “Uncle Tom” movements.
      Partly because Jews had been active in the formation of both organization.
      As “Muslims” they also were against Israel and for their Arab Brothers, consequently they were not friendly to Jews.

      Malcolm X rose quickly in the movement due to his great intelligence and superior oratorical skills. He was a true believer and considered Elijah Muhammad to be like a father to him. As with many “sons” he found his worshiped father to have feet of clay, in that he didn’t practice what he preached. Muhammad by all accounts was a womanizing adulterer, who also drank whiskey, both of which ran counter to his preaching. For his part Muhammad resented Malcolm who was fast becoming recognized as perhaps the real leader of the movement, thus threatening Muhammad’s power. Then too Louis Farrakhan, a former lounge singer, was poisoning the waters with Muhammad shall we say by disparaging Malcom, seeing Malcolm as a rival for potential succession to the leadership of the Nation of Islam movement,

      By then the Civil Rights Movement, with Martin Luther King as the titular leader was in bloom. Elijah Muhammad and his movement disdained the Civil Rights movement because of the many whites who were involved and because the Nation of Islam talked a “good game” at least of meeting violence against Blacks with violence, though there are few documented instances of their ever doing so. This of course was antithetical to MLK’s course which was one of on-violence ala Gandhi.

      Prior to his Haj, Malcolm began to understand that Muhammad was not only falling behind the times, but in fact by his beliefs serving as an impediment to the advancement of Civil Rights. There was also talk of a relationship between the Nation of Islam and J. Edgar hoover’s FBI. To my mind I believe Malcolm. ever extraordinarily intelligent, planned the Haj as a way of beginning his extrication from Muhammad, creation of his own organization and allying with the Civil Rights Movement. He took those steps after the Haj. He was murdered at a scheduled public meeting in Harlem, where he had been threatened to be killed if he went through with it. Because of those threats there were at least two FBI agents present, who managed not to stop the killers. There was more than suspicion that the killers had been sent by Louis Farrakhan, with
      Elijah Muhammad’s approval.

      This was more than 40 years ago so I’m doing it from imperfect memory.
      I have read extensively on it from back then and in the 70’s. Among the books I remember reading was the “Autobiography of Malcolm X” and the scholarly work “Black Muslim’s in America”. This also comes from my living through the era. To me Malcolm X was a man with really great potential. Had he and Dr. King not been murdered they may have altered history for the better, since their skills and their oratory complemented each other. Dr. King had the rich moral tradition of the Black Church behind him, while Malcolm had enormous “Street Cred”. Together they could have offset the ultimately defeating “Black Power” movement and
      truly succeeded in ending this country’s racism.

  12. Nick,

    I think you missed my point. There are places that have bad reputations for a reason. That said, not all people who live in such places are bad people.

    BTW, politicians working to suppress the votes of certain groups of people is not a thing of the past. In fact, it’s been happening in a number of states in recent years.

    Are you sure that the Ku Klux Klan started in Indiana? You’re a student of history. Can you provide me with information about its origins?

  14. I believe I’m entitled to disparage any place, whether I have been there or not. I disparage Guantanamo!

  15. Gene,

    You’re right about the newer Malcolm X…… He was a prolific racist….

    Something I gleaned from Mike S’s post… Unless you are part of the solution.. You are the problem…..

  17. Elaine, I’m sorry I don’t live in the past like progressives. In Ct. there were Men’s bars. These were bars where women weren’t allowed. And that was in the 1970’s, after Jim Crow laws were abolished. What about Indiana where the KKK started? What about Illinois where it flourished? Elaine I’m sorry I’m raining on the hate the south parade. I am a student of history and to judge a state NOW based on the past..where the vast majority of people living now weren’t even born, is bigoted and small minded.

  18. Nick,

    I guess it depends on whether a state and its residents have earned their reputation. Would you disparage a state that had Jim Crow laws..a state where the KKK burned crosses on people’s lawns…a state where the powers that be tried to suppress the votes of its citizens?

  19. Elaine, If it’s warranted..absolutely. But to disparage a state, city, movie, book, person, etc. based on it’s reputation is horseshit..don’t you agree?

  20. Nick

    “I often wonder how many people have even visited the states they so cavalierly disparage.”

    Is it okay to cavalierly disparage states and/or their residents if you’ve visited them?

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