Alabama Chief Justice Fights to Keep Job

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Wed, Oct. 22, 2003

Alabama Chief Justice Fights to Keep Job
BOB JOHNSON
Associated Press

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's suspended chief justice has asked that five of the nine members of the Court of the Judiciary be disqualified from hearing the ethics case that could lead to his removal from office.

Roy Moore's attorneys asked that the five step down for various reasons - including that two members have served longer than their appointments and that other members discussed Moore's case with state court employees. The court did not immediately rule on the motion.

State Attorney General Bill Pryor is prosecuting Moore for refusing to obey a federal judge's order to remove Moore's Ten Commandments monument from public display in the state judicial building. The judge ruled the monument was an unconstitutional promotion of religion by government.

After a protracted legal fight, the monument was put in storage in August on orders of the state Supreme Court's eight associate justices. (snip/...)

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/7078807.htm

[TlalocW]

1. Unfortunately...

This will be a case of "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you can imagine." Except Roy's on the Dark Side. If he gets the boot, he becomes a Christian Martyr and gets elected to congress or the governorship.

TlalocW

[peterh]

2. Aside from what one might consider normal legal maneuvering...

with regard to those that would hear the case…..The Pryor maneuver is puzzling….

Earlier Wednesday, the Court of the Judiciary rejected Moore's bid to disqualify Pryor from prosecuting him.
Among Moore's arguments was that Pryor's office defended him in court during his fight to keep the monument in the building's rotunda, and that the attorney general cannot now oppose him in a related case.


I guess Moore might feel (and rightfully so) that Pryor may lay down and there might be a perception of a fix…and Moore wants to win without that perception…..with or without a fix, in my mind, he’ll always be guilty as charged.

[AlabamaYankee]

3. Pryor's reasoning for staying on is sound

Moore is being tried before the Court of the Judiciary for defying the Federal Court order, not for having the monument placed in the building. While Pryor supported Moore in that, he has consistently moved to enforce Federal Court orders (and in Aabama there have been many)even if he personally does not agree with them. It's a different - if related - case, and his duty is to prosecute. I doubt very much that he would sandbag teh case.

Incidnetally, that's the arguement he's used in his Judiciary hearings, that he would uphold the law even if he disagrees with it. What nobody seems to grasp is that an Appeals Court judg interprets the law, rather then enforcing it, so he could easily impose his beliefs

[peterh]

4. I wasn’t really questioning Pryor’s motives…

As much as I was questioning Moore’s motives for trying to remove Pryor. The more I think about it, I feel there’s a perception that Moore wants to eliminate from consideration with the 9-member panel…