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Thread ID: 3683 | Posts: 10 | Started: 2002-11-25
2002-11-25 07:59 | User Profile
[url=http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuchanan/pb20021125.shtml]http://www.townhall.com/columnists/patbuch...b20021125.shtml[/url]
November 25, 2002
Moses & Judge Moore vs. Morris Dees
Since that fateful day Dwight Eisenhower named Earl Warren chief justice, the U.S. Supreme Court has been engineering a social revolution.
Seizing legislative power, the court legalized pornography, declared abortion a constitutional right, abolished the death penalty for a generation and prohibited a once-Christian people from paying public homage to their God. Yet, Americans have not rebelled.
Why not? Because they were raised to believe the court was the final judge of what the Constitution says, and to defy it is to dishonor the Founding Fathers. Andy Jackson would have hanged judges like Warren, Brennan, Blackmun and Douglas as high as Haman.
Missing in our 50-year struggle against judicial dictatorship has been a Sam Adams, with the courage and kidney to go down to the docks and toss His Majesty's tea into the harbor. But in the new chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, we may have found such a man.
Roy Moore, a Vietnam vet, was lately a judge in Etowah County. Presented a carving of the Ten Commandments, Moore proudly hung the plaque in his courtroom, where it attracted the horrified notice of the ACLU, which found a federal judge to order Moore to take it down.
If the feds want this plaque down, said Moore, tell them to send U.S. marshals to tear it down. Moore's defiance was electrifying. And Gov. Fob James backed Moore up, saying that if the feds sent in marshals, he, his state troopers and the Alabama National Guard would meet them on the courthouse steps.
The prospect of Janet Reno leading units of the 82nd Airborne to Etowah County to rip the Ten Commandments off a courtroom wall was exhilarating. But a higher court averted a showdown by ruling the plaque could stay.
Moore was a hero across Alabama, and decided to run for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Moore won. And the night before he took the oath, he had moved into the rotunda of the judicial building in Montgomery a 5,300-pound block of granite on which was carved the Ten Commandments Moses brought down from Mount Sinai.
Moore's coup stunned Morris Dees, the McGovernite fund-raiser who runs a racket called the Southern Poverty Law Center. Dees went to court to demand that the commandments be purged. "This monument was snuck in during the middle of the night, and they can sneak it out just as easily," he ranted, "It's a gross violation of the rights of the citizens of Alabama." Since the citizens of Alabama elected Moore and nobody elected Dees, it would seem Dees speaks only for the usual minority of malcontents.
Unfortunately for Dees, a copy of a confidential letter he sent to a fellow attorney in the case was mailed to the counsel for Moore. In it, Dees revealed himself as a Christian-basher. "You might remember that from the start," he wrote his colleague, "I was laying our trial theme -- i.e., how this was the act of a lone religious nut in partnership with a fanatical church."
The "nut" is Justice Moore. The "fanatical church" is Coral Ridge Ministries of TV evangelist Dr. James Kennedy. But Dees did find a like-minded U.S. judge, Myron Thompson, who has ordered Judge Moore to remove the commandments within 30 days. Wrote Thompson, "The court is impressed that the monument and its immediate surroundings are, in essence, a consecrated place, a religious sanctuary, within the walls of the courthouse."
Moore has appealed Thompson's ruling, and the granite block with the carving of the commandments remains in the rotunda as the Dec. 17 deadline for its removal approaches. The stage is set for a constitutional confrontation.
If Moore refuses to remove the monument, and both sides go up to the Supreme Court, the issue will come down to this: Either the Supreme Court will back Moore and the Ten Commandments will remain in the rotunda -- or the court will give a final order to remove the Ten Commandments.
If the judge refuses, U.S. marshals may be ordered to go in and remove the monument. Would Bush instruct U.S. marshals to carry out such an order? Would Alabama Gov. Bob Riley follow Fob James and send the Alabama National Guard to impede the marshals? Would Bush federalize the Alabama Guard or send in U.S. troops to take down the Ten Commandments from the rotunda in Montgomery, with thousands of Christians roaring their enraged opposition?
This one is going down to the wire. And for once, Christians and traditionalists have a champion willing to put himself on the line. The next civil rights revolution in America may be Christians standing up to an anti-Christian bigotry that has captured the third branch of the American government.
Well....
This may be the first time since the civil rights era that a state has stood up to the Feds. Jeffersonian Anti-Federalists everywhere should be ecstatic.
And you couldn't ask for a more notoriusly agitating carpetbagger to go on record in the history books than Morris Dees.
From a civil government perspective I don't have a problem with the 10 Commandments being displayed in a court since this falls under "free exercise thereof" in the First Amendment. But the Religious Right jumping for joy at this--should Justice Moore prevail and set a precedent--ought to realize that the law cuts both ways. We may see Virgin de Guadalupe statues on the lawns of the Arizona and New Mexico statehouses or an Islamic judge in Berkeley keeping a copy of the Koran on display at his bench.
2002-11-25 08:12 | User Profile
If the feds want this plaque down, said Moore, tell them to send U.S. marshals to tear it down. Moore's defiance was electrifying. And Gov. Fob James backed Moore up, saying that if the feds sent in marshals, he, his state troopers and the Alabama National Guard would meet them on the courthouse steps.
At last! Real Americans, and in the South too! I've been waiting a long time for this type of event, some sort of light at the end of the national tunnel.
2002-11-26 01:28 | User Profile
Somewhere in the Great Beyond I believe George Corley Wallace must be smiling over developments in his "Sweet Home Alabama." :D
2002-11-26 03:55 | User Profile
Pardon my southern ignorance but didn't George Wallace become a p*ssy in his late age and apologize like a litte girl for his "insensitivities"???
Again, if I'm wrong let me know. But I like guys who stand on their beliefs no matter what. (or guys that even have beliefs, so that eliminates Clinton and Jorge)
-Jay
2002-11-26 04:11 | User Profile
If the judge refuses, U.S. marshals may be ordered to go in and remove the monument. Would Bush instruct U.S. marshals to carry out such an order? Would Alabama Gov. Bob Riley follow Fob James and send the Alabama National Guard to impede the marshals? Would Bush federalize the Alabama Guard or send in U.S. troops to take down the Ten Commandments from the rotunda in Montgomery, with thousands of Christians roaring their enraged opposition?
God, do I hope the Supremes order the troops in. White Southerners may not be willing at this point to openly go to the barricades for the race, but they just might for Jesus.
This thing has great possibilities. The dramatic uproar of a ZOG/state confrontation - though its impetus is a religious dispute - could afford a golden opportunity to put the jews & their brown lackeys back in their proper place in Alabama - and, quite possibly, throughout the region. These Christians may say they're happy with the New South when a t.v. camera is in their face, but we all know they damn well ain't. I'll wager that under the right conditions (atheist jews in the press and on the Court demanding the troops be sent in; nigra & mestizo predators taking advantage of the ensuing chaos), these good ol' boys will at last release the Inner Klansman that's been chained up for 40 years.
If so, HEY HO!
2002-11-26 04:34 | User Profile
Originally posted by jay@Nov 25 2002, 21:55 *Pardon my southern ignorance but didn't George Wallace become a pssy in his late age and apologize like a litte girl for his "insensitivities"???
Again, if I'm wrong let me know. But I like guys who stand on their beliefs no matter what. (or guys that even have beliefs, so that eliminates Clinton and Jorge)
-Jay**
Even in his prime as governor, he moved away from the schoolhouse door as soon as the cameras were turned off. He was a segregationist all right, but only for as long as he thought it was what Alabamans demanded. When they submitted to integration instead of grabbing their guns he apologized for his "insensitivities". A real politician.
2002-11-26 16:20 | User Profile
Originally posted by N.B. Forrest@Nov 25 2002, 22:11 **God, do I hope the Supremes order the troops in. White Southerners may not be willing at this point to openly go to the barricades for the race, but they just might for Jesus. **
As I have been following this case with some interest, this has been my fervent hope as well, NB. However, if you and I realize such an event could be a rallying point for us rednecks, I'm sure Dees *et al.* do as well, and will find some way to get things done quietly. For example, I feel that the Wichita massacre was such an event and could have served as a focal point for a wider pro-White movement. Who knows? It still may, as more and more people become aware of it. Sorry to be such a broken record on the subject, but nothing displays the establishment's mastery of the "memory hole" technique than that case, along with others such as the Dirkhising kid's murder.
Of course, by this point, Dees and his tribe may be so arrogant that they simply don't give a damn what the goyim cattle think, especially after the GOP "triumph" this month. However, I don't think they realize how tightly stretched the "social fabric" is these days. It may not take much of a push to "release the Inner Klansman that's been chained up for 40 years" as you say. History does record that this particular set of folks oversteps their bounds and gets slapped down in a fairly regular cycle.
The thought of federal marshals getting pinned down on the courthouse steps by the Alabama NG is amusing, but I don't think it'll get that far. If they absolutely have to take the monument out, I would bet on it happening at 3am, or during Monday Night Football, either way would mean little interference.
Good point on the two-edged sword, il ragno. Some people haven't perhaps thought this one through.
"Good morning, defendant. Tell me, have you accepted Gaia as your guiding light to harmony with Nature and Womynhood?"
or
"Counsel may bleed the goat in front of my bench and I will read its entrails to determine if the great Mobutu will favor today's proceedings."
2002-11-28 03:41 | User Profile
I realize that George Wallace was not a doctinaire segregationist in the manner of Carleton Putnam. After losing his first run for governor in the 1950s he vowed never to be "outsegged" again. I read somewhere that the Kennedy bros. agreed to let him stage his doorway resistance for local political consumption. In later years when reestablishing Jim Crow was no more possible than putting toothpaste back in the tube he went so far as to apologize for supporting segregation.
I do believe his populist leanings were genuine and that he rightfully resented the sanctimonious interference by the elite in southern affairs. In the wake of the Supreme Court school prayer decision he appeared before congressional committees in favor of an amendment to legalize prayer in public school.
George Wallace had to endure paraplegia in excess of a quarter of a century. Not only did he suffer the loss of functions below the waist, he had to constantly deal with pain and life threatening complications. The "inner Christian" instilled in most Southerners in childhood can assert itself when life's days are numbered and drive a Southerner to conspicuous contrition --- just look at all of Lee Atwater's apologetics in the final stages of cancer.
Nonetheless, I believe George Wallace would certainly get a chuckle from the prospect of another doorway defiance of judicial impudence.
2002-11-29 09:16 | User Profile
From The Associated Press, available online at: [url=http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/document.asp?documentID=17308]http://www.freedomforum.org/templates/docu...ocumentID=17308[/url]
Conflicting rulings on Commandments keep controversy simmering
November 27, 2002
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Courts last week ordered the removal of monuments to the Ten Commandments from an Alabama state courthouse and four Ohio public schools.
In Texas, a federal court just six weeks earlier ruled the opposite, deciding a monument to the Ten Commandments could stay on state Capitol grounds.
Those conflicting rulings and others in states across the South and Midwest have added fuel to an already heated debate over whether such displays violate the First Amendment's ban on government endorsement of religion.
While most courts have said the displays are intended to promote religion, others have said they have historical value, too.
Supporters of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was ordered on Nov. 18 to remove a 5,300-pound granite Ten Commandments monument from the state's judicial building, say it's time the U.S. Supreme Court cleared up the issue once and for all.
They believe they have the perfect case.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled the Alabama monument was unconstitutional because it endorsed Moore's Judeo-Christian religious beliefs. However, Thompson complicated matters by saying the displays are permissible in some cases but not in this one, said the Rev. Rob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council.
"It's like you're sitting before the prince and wondering if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed today and is going to cut your head off," Schenck said.
A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a similar ruling last month and called a 6-foot-tall granite monument near the Kentucky Capitol a thinly disguised effort at government endorsement of religion. The monument had been donated to the state in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles.
But in Texas last month, another federal court said a 5-foot stone monument near the Capitol grounds in Austin could stay.
U.S. District Senior Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth said no reasonable person would consider the Texas display a religious endorsement. The monument was donated in 1961 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles for the purpose of promoting youth morality to curb juvenile delinquency.
Kentucky's Mercer County, which is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union over its posting of the Ten Commandments in a courthouse, also argues the religious codes are about history. The biblical text there is accompanied by other documents, including the Mayflower Compact, the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta.
Ayesha Khan, legal director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the organizations that sued Moore over the Alabama monument, believes the issue is clear cut ââ¬â in the other direction.
"I think what Justice Moore has done is such a flagrant violation of the Constitution that the Supreme Court wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole," Khan said.
Morris Dees, lead counsel and co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, argued during the Alabama trial that Moore used the Ten Commandments issue to further his political career. He said he doesn't believe Moore has covered any new ground that would warrant the attention of the nation's highest court. "All he's got is a hot political issue."
But Stephen Melchior, Moore's lead attorney, says he "absolutely believes" the Supreme Court will hear the case.
"If Morris Dees and company believe we are going to sit back and feel intimidated, this poor man has another thing coming," he said.
Even though Moore's monument contains quotes from historical figures and documents, Thompson's ruling found it to be clearly a religious display, said University of Alabama constitutional law professor Bryan Fair.
"The chief justice is not trying to assert that the Ten Commandments are one of multiple sources of law. He's trying to assert the sovereignty of God over all, particularly the Judeo-Christian God," Fair said.
David Gregory, a constitutional law professor at St. John's University in New York, says he believes the conservative "state-rights wing" of the Supreme Court is looking for a case to finally decide the Ten Commandments issue. He said the chance of the Supreme Court hearing the case is probably greater if the 11th Circuit rules against Moore.
"Then you would have a very important judge in a very important state appealing to them saying, 'I'm Alabama's chief judge and I understand the law as well as anyone,'" said Gregory.
Hiram Sasser, an attorney for the Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute who has argued cases in support of Ten Commandments displays, says he thinks the Texas case will drive the debate to the Supreme Court.
Regardless of which case takes the issue to the justices, it's a matter that needs a definitive ruling, he says.
"We're going to have to have a case from the Supreme Court that once and for all tells judges that these Ten Commandments displays are OK," Sasser said.
2002-11-29 19:56 | User Profile
Yes! Let us hope for a Fight; the worse it is the better! :P :P