Justice says he won't move monument

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Alabama's chief justice stood Tuesday in front of a monument to the Ten Commandments and promised to fight a federal order to remove it from the state's judicial building.

"I have no plans to remove the monument, and when I do I will let you know personally," Chief Justice Roy Moore told reporters at a news conference.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled Monday that the 5,300-pound granite monument is unconstitutional because it goes too far in promoting religion in a government building. He gave Moore, who installed the monument last year, 30 days to remove it at his own expense.

Moore questioned whether any federal court can order Alabama's top judge to do anything, but attorneys who sued for the monument's removal said his defiance would be futile and could cost taxpayers money.

Compared to Wallace

Morris Dees, lead counsel and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, called Moore a "religious demagogue" and compared him to George Wallace. The former Alabama governor defended racial segregation in 1963 with his "stand in the schoolhouse door," in which he tried to prevent two blacks from enrolling at the University of Alabama.

"Like George Wallace, he might bluster and stand in the door, but he'll step aside when the federal marshals come," Dees said.

When asked if he would stand in the door to prevent removal of the monument, Moore said he was not a Wallace and that he had not decided what actions he might take.

Not all Ten Commandment displays in government buildings are illegal, Thompson said in his ruling. But the "religious air" of Moore's monument, in which the commandments are written on two tablets sitting atop a granite block, crosses the line, Thompson said.

Moore, a conservative Christian, said he plans to appeal the order. He said the monument must remain because it acknowledges the moral foundation of American law.