Germany was the cause of Hitler just as much as Chicago is responsible for the Chicago Tribune.
— Alexander Woollcott spoken Jan. 23, 1943 on the People's Platform program

The sad fact is that although today a few more would agree that Roy Moore is either a madman or a fool (in addition to being the now-suspended Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court), some who should don't.

In his prior and somewhat less-exalted state as a state circuit court judge in 1997, then-Judge Moore distinguished himself by demonstrating that he was above the law. In his courtroom he hung a hand-carved, wooden plaque of the Ten Commandments, because, one assumes, he could not remember what they said without prompting from the plaque. A higher state court ordered the plaque's removal. Faithful to what he perceived to be his need to follow the orders of an even higher, albeit celestial, court that had actually never addressed the subject except in the wanderings of the judge's twisted mind, he refused.

Posting the Ten Commandments was not his only obedience to a supposed higher court's instructions. He opened his court each day with prayers conducted by a Protestant minister. Asked by a reporter whether a Buddhist or Muslim could offer a prayer he said they could not since they do not recognize God as he does.

Justice Moore may be mad, but he was not without his supporters then nor, lamentably, today. In the 1997 controversy, former Alabama Gov. Fob James applauded the judge's defiance of the higher court order and said he would use the National Guard to block any judicial effort to remove the plaque. On March 20, 1997, the judge traveled to Washington, where he was treated as a hero by 295 mindless members of the House of Representatives who passed a resolution in praise of his defiance of the law. Not wanting to be outdone by their counterparts in the House, Alabama's two Republican senators introduced an oxymoron called a "sense-of-Congress" resolution praising Judge Moore and telling courts throughout the land that they should permit the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings.

In the mad scramble to demonstrate that Judge Moore was not the only fool afoot in the land, Earnest Istook, Republican senator from Oklahoma, threw himself into the fray, offering a "religious freedom" amendment to the Constitution that asserted the right to pray and display religious symbols in public places, including public schools.

That was then. This is now. Some things have changed — many have not.

In 2001 Judge Moore was elected Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He got there in part by taking positions that were very popular in Alabama. When the Vermont Legislature passed legislation approving gay unions, he said the next logical step in the process was for the law to allow unions between "two men and four women" or between "a sheep and a man." Continuing his musing on the possible consequences of the Vermont law he said: "Let me ask you this. Are you going to pay your tax money to support a man and a sheep on welfare? Hmmm?"

The people in Alabama liked his position on marriage between two men and four women and a man and a sheep. They thought it demonstrated the sort of keen mind they wanted on their Supreme Court. They thought with that kind of an intellect on their highest court there was no telling where the state might go. That was why they exalted Judge Moore to the highest judicial position in the state of Alabama. A helping of brains or common sense did not accompany the judge to his lofty post. Instead, his faith, which can fairly be described as blind, accompanied him to that high post and manifested itself in his work on the court.

In a custody battle over the fate of three children whose mother was a lesbian, he wrote a concurring opinion in which he said that homosexuality is "abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature and a violation of the laws of nature and of nature's God." He said homosexuals were "presumptively unfit to have custody of minor children under the established laws of this state." With words like that, few of his supporters regretted having supported him.

After his election, his small wooden plaque was replaced by a two-ton stone monument containing the same words as the plaque, plus a few others, thus demonstrating that Alabama, at least, in Moore's mind, is a state firmly committed to Christian principles and none other.

Fob James is no longer governor. But his successor, Bob Riley, stands in James' shoes. Riley said: "I have a deep and abiding belief that there is nothing wrong or unconstitutional about the public display of the Ten Commandments and disagree with the court's mandate to remove them." Alabama's attorney general is more enlightened. He said the state should be brought into compliance with the federal court's ruling.

The U.S. House of Representatives did not pass a resolution of support. Its actions were louder than its earlier words. It attached an amendment to the recently passed appropriations bill that bans the use of federal funds to enforce the federal court order to remove the monument. Some think the U.S. Senate will remove the amendment. If it does not, it will prove again, if proof is needed, that the ship of state is piloted by a ship of fools.

Christopher Brauchli is a Boulder lawyer and and writes a weekly column for the Knight Ridder news service. He can be reached at brauchli.56@post.harvard.edu

Copyright 2003, The Daily Camera

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