On the one hand, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has waged a personal battle to keep a monument of the Ten Commandments in the state’s judicial building, even in the face of an obvious violation of the Constitution’s guarantee of the separation of church and state.
On the other hand, the Rules of Professional Conduct, which govern my behavior as a lawyer, dictate that I should not criticize the integrity of a judge.
It is with those two ideas in mind that I say unequivocally that Judge Moore is a great American. Justice Moore is not, I repeat, not an example of why Alabama consistently ranks at the very bottom of our states in education.
Justice Moore recently chose to violate a federal court order requiring him to remove the monument. But that is not the real Justice Moore.
Justice Moore is an accomplished author. In his biography on the Alabama Supreme Court website he is listed as the author of “Religion in the Public Square” published in the prestigious Cumberland Law Review at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He also authored “Putting God Back in the Public Square” in something called Imprimis at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
His detractors say Justice Moore is a fool. But Justice Moore has received many awards. They include the Christian Citizenship Award from the same Samford University; the Christian Statesman of the Year Award from the D. James Kennedy Center for Christian Statesmanship; the God and Country Award from the American Family Association.
The seemingly innocuous American Family Association bills itself as existing to “motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth and traditional family values.” (Whose tradition, whose family?).
Justice Moore also has been honored with the Family, Faith and Freedom Citation presented by the Family Research Council — Motto: “Defending Family, Faith and Freedom.” That, of course, is only if your family and faith match up with theirs.
Justice Moore’s accolades continue. He got the American Heritage of Faith Award from the Freedom Flyer Ministries and the National Hero of Faith Award from Vision America — Motto: “Mobilizing Pastors to Civic Action.”
Chief Justice Moore received a Doctor of Divinity Ecclesiastical Degree conferred upon him by the Methodist Episcopal Church, USA.
But the criticism (by others, not me) continues. In a recent article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, some “misguided” detractors of Justice Moore made the following statements:
“Judge Moore is a classic demagogue,” said Morris Dees, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of several groups that fought in court for the monument’s removal. “He’s a total embarrassment to the legal profession.”
For the record, I do not support that statement and reprint the comment only in an effort to be objective.
“Roy Moore lives in a world where there isn’t any gray,” says Auburn University history professor Wayne Flynt. “And I think he really believes that [his position on the monument] is true, which makes him really scary.”
I don’t endorse that statement either.
When I’m discussing ultra-conservative public figures I have to think back to the days when John Ashcroft was being discussed for the position of U.S. attorney general. You may not realize this, but there is very little upon which Ashcroft and I agree, but I was heartened by one of his comments prior to confirmation. He agreed that his religious beliefs sometimes took him outside the mainstream and outside the law. He said in circumstances where his personal beliefs were not in concert with the law, he would put his personal beliefs aside and uphold the law.
Justice Moore . . . hello . . . are you there? And I mean that with no disrespect.
Mitch Margo is an attorney in St. Louis and a member of The Levison Group, which provides columns for this newspaper. He may be reached at [email protected].