AU wraps up case against Ala. Ten Commandments judge. (People & Events).AU Legal Director Ayesha Khan traveled to Alabama in mid October to spearhead Americans United's lawsuit against Alabama Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Alabama is the highest court in the state of Alabama. The court consists of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices, elected in partisan elections for staggered six year terms. Chief Justice Roy Moore For the baseball player, see . Roy Moore is a controversial American jurist and politician noted for his refusal, as the elected Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse despite orders from a federal court , who last year arranged to have the Ten Commandments Ten Commandments or Decalogue [Gr.,=ten words], in the Bible, the summary of divine law given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. They have a paramount place in the ethical system in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. displayed at the state Judicial Building. Americans United and the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nonpartisan organization devoted to the preservation and extension of the basic rights set forth in the U.S. Constitution. of Alabama filed suit against Moore in federal court after he secretly arranged to have a two-and-a-half-ton granite sculpture of the Ten Commandments placed in the lobby of the courthouse in Montgomery, the state capital. Moore has been on a Ten Commandments crusade for years. As a circuit judge in Etowah County, he displayed a hand-carved Ten Commandments plaque and was criticized for opening some sessions with prayer. A lawsuit filed over that display was dismissed on a technicality. The incident made Moore a hero to the Religious Right, and he used the notoriety NOTORIETY, evidence. That which is generally known. 2. This notoriety is of fact or of law. In general, the notoriety of a fact is not sufficient to found a judgment or to rely on its truth; 1 Ohio Rep. he garnered to win election as chief justice in November of 2000. About eight months later, Moore had the Commandments placed in the Judicial Building. Moore took the action unilaterally and did not consult with his fellow justices. In fact, he waited until the building was empty and then helped workers bring the monument in. Moore has several allies in the Religious Right. Florida TV preacher D. James Kennedy Dennis James Kennedy, (November 3 1930 – September 5 2007) was an American televangelist and founder of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was senior pastor from 1960 until his death in 2007. , for example, has repeatedly used the lawsuit against Moore to raise money. The ministry even sold videos of Moore placing the monument in the public building. In October Kennedy sent out a mailing asserting that Moore had been badgered by attorneys with AU and the ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. during "a grueling two-day deposition." Kennedy begged for contributions, writing, "The stakes are huge in this battle. For if the public display of the Ten Commandments can be banned, then your freedom and mine to express our faith in public is suddenly at terrible risk of being curtailed by the state!" Other religious leaders take a different view. On Aug. 21, national and state clergy joined forces to file a legal brief, asking the court to declare Moore's display of the Ten Commandments unconstitutional. |
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