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So Help Me God - The Ten Commandments, Judicial tyranny, and the Battle for Religious Freedom
Roy Moore, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama with John Perry
Reviewed by Sandra Alexander
31 May 2005

Judge Roy Moore's decision to place a monument of the Ten Commandments in the state court building simply reflected the oath of office he took when he became Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, as well as the platform he ran on.

"Nothing is more important to the future of our State than upholding the moral foundations of the law. When I become Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, my top priority will be to restore the moral foundation upon which our laws are based. We need justices on the Supreme Court and judges on the Courts of Criminal and Civil Appeals who share these values. You can help by electing men and women who are committed to this task." (130)

The brochure pictured Judge Moore with other Republican candidates for the Supreme Court of Alabama. Ironically, these men later opposed Judge Moore’s right to display the 10 Commandments on a monument in the rotunda of the Supreme Court building.

At Judge Moore’s swearing-in ceremony he “pledged to support not only the U.S. Constitution, but the Alabama Constitution as well, which provided in its preamble that the state ‘establish(ed) justice’ ‘invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God.’ The connection between God and our law could not be more clear.” (135) “A belief in God was historically the faith on which all oaths were based. It is for that reason that the Alabama Constitution requires all oaths taken by officers of the state government to end with the words, so help me God. As chief administrator of the Alabama justice system, I had a statutory duty to recognize the basis of that justice system.” ( 137)

“On October 19, 1789, John Jay, the first chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, took an oath similar to the one I was administered by Chief Justice Hooper. His oath ended with the words ‘so help me God,’ as required by the Judiciary Act of 1789 under which our first federal judiciary was organized.” (138) Justice Jay later stated, in a charge to a Vermont grand jury (June 25, 1792) that “This testimony (of witnesses) is given under those solemn obligations which an appeal to the God of truth impose; and if oaths should cease to be held sacred, our dearest and most valuable Rights would become insecure.” (138)

George Washington further commented in his September 17, 1796 Farewell address: “Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice. “ (138)

Justice Moore, again following the example of President Washington, whose first act following his election to the Presidency, was to recognize God, spoke as follows:

"We need today, as they did then, God’s blessings………Judges are bound by the Constitution as the law of the land and that Constitution doesn’t prohibit the acknowledgment of God. I hope in my tenure as Chief Justice I will bring back an understanding of that Constitution which remains law… I ask that you join with me to secure the blessings of liberty and justice for all. (140)

Judge Moore also attests that, as Chief Justice, he had the title of “lessee of the Alabama Judicial Building.” This meant that he was “in charge of designating office and parking spaces and decorating the building.” (136) The press later suppressed this information
when, led by the ACLU and other groups, they began their tireless campaign to accuse Judge Moore of "promoting religion" and “crossing the barrier that is supposed to exist between church and state.” As Judge Moore points out repeatedly, he had done nothing wrong, only attempted to fulfill his constitutional duty to acknowledge God. “Acknowledging God is not the same as establishing a religion. The establishment of a religion means setting up a state church or state-supported church bureaucracy….The often-quoted ‘establishment clause’ at the beginning does not mean ‘the government shall not recognize God.’ The first thing Congress did on September 25, 1789 – the day they adopted the wording of the First Amendment – was to direct a joint committee of both houses to request President Washington to recommend a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God for the peaceful manner in which the Constitution had been established. (72)

Judge Moore points out that “Today, professors of law from major universities like Harvard and Yale have misled the political and legal establishment into believing that God has no relationship to our government or to our law. The truth is that without a belief in God we would have no country and no Constitution.” (81)

“Still others, professing themselves to be wise, have confused the American people into thinking that the law of nature had nothing to do with the Bible and revealed divine law………..But, the great English legal scholar Blackstone ‘stated clearly that man’s reason became clouded and impaired after the fall of our first ancestor, Adam, so God intervened and gave us ‘revealed or divine law, found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found upon comparison to be a part of the original law of nature…..The law of nature written on our hearts by God is the same law written in the Holy Scriptures, and more explicitly by God’s own finger on two tablets of stone on Mt. Sinai." (82)

Blackstone further explained that “undoubtedly the revealed law is (humanly speaking) of infinitely more authority than what we generally call the natural law. Because one is the law of nature, expressly declared so to be by God himself (the Ten Commandments); the other is only what, by the assistance of human reason, we imagine to be that law.” (82)

The conclusion is both powerful and compelling: “Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation depend all human laws; that is to say, no human law should be suffered to contradict these.” (82)

This is not a novel concept. In 1690, John Locke, in his Second Treatise of Civil Government (Locke was thoroughly read by and often quoted by the founding fathers) wrote that “the Law of Nature, stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others.” The laws made by legislators must therefore be conformable to the law of nature – that is to the will of God. (82)

In spite of such powerful men giving credence to Judge Moore’s public acknowledgement of God as the giver of all rights and liberties possessed by man, on August 5, 2005, Federal Court Judge Myron Thompson ordered Judge Moore “to remove, by no later than August 20, 2003, the Ten Commandments monument at issue in this litigation from the non-private areas of the Alabama State Judicial Building.” (221)

Judge Moore countered: “I have no intention of removing the monument of the Ten Commandments and the moral foundation of our law.” (223) "….to do my duty I must acknowledge God. That is what this case is about.” (228)

Eventually, Judge Moore’s Supreme Court colleagues bowed to the pressure of the court order and had the Ten Commandments monument moved to a storage area. Not to be outdone, the Judicial Inquiry Committee (JIC) on the morning of August 27, 2003, let it be known that they were “not satisfied with having the federal court enter an order to remove the Ten Commandments monument, they now wanted to have Justice Moore removed from office.” The JIC subsequently filed their complaint with the Court of the Judiciary, a politically appointed body chosen to oversee the ethical standards of judges in the state of Alabama. (232)

Although Judge Moore did not believe that the COJ would ultimately find that he had violated the Canons of Judicial Ethics, and “no judge in Alabama had ever been removed from office for disobeying a court order,” (233) he was to be proven wrong. The COJ voted to remove Judge Moore from the office of chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. (240). All other appeals failed.

Judge Moore states that “from the very beginning, I knew that officially recognizing the sovereignty of God was the issue, and that removal from office was a possibility if I did not ‘bow down’ to the whim of the federal courts. But I was at the moment astonished that it actually happened.” (240) Later he addressed the media: “I have absolutely no regrets. I have done what I was sworn to do. It’s about whether or not you can acknowledge God as a source of our law and our liberty. That’s all I’ve done.” (241)

Readers of Judge Moore’s book may continue to ask, “What is the true significance of Judge Moore’s removal as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama?” How seriously does this raw act of judicial power erode the religious liberties and freedom of speech of ordinary Americans? Is the public display of the Ten Commandments truly protected by the Constitution, as Judge Moore contends?” Finally, “Was Judge Moore a hero or a fool for standing on moral principle, preferring to lose his elected position rather than compromise his faith in the one true God?” Although each reader will come to their own conclusions, Judge Moore’s thought-provoking book will not be easily forgotten in a day and age when moral absolutism is disparaged as ‘obsolete’ and ‘moral relativism’ (do what’s best for old number one!) is in.

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

by Judge Roy Moore

America the Beautiful,
or so you used to be.
Land of the Pilgrims’ pride;
I’m glad they’ll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters,
Abortion on demand,
Oh, sweet land of liberty,
your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly
poisoned by cocaine,
Choosing to indulge their lusts,
when God has said abstain.

From sea to shining sea,
our Nation turns away
From the teaching of God’s love
and a need to always pray.

We’ve kept God in our temples,
how callous we have grown.
when earth is but His footstool,
and Heaven is His throne.

We’ve voted in a government
that’s rotting at the core,
Appointing Godless Judges
who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer
in a well deserved tomb,
But brave enough to kill a baby
before he leaves the womb.

You think that God’s not angry,
that our land’s a moral slum?]
How much longer will He wait
before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God,
from Whom we cannot hide/
What then is left for us to do,
but stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children,
will humbly turn and pray;
Seek His holy face;
and mend our evil way:

Then god will hear from Heaven
and forgive us of our sins,
He’ll heal our sickly land
and those who live within

But, America the Beautiful,
if you don’t – then you’ll see,
a sad but Holy god
withdraw His hand from thee.

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