c. 2003 Religion News Service

MONTGOMERY, Ala. _ Suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said Tuesday (Sept. 16) he will offer his Ten Commandments monument to Congress for display in the U.S. Capitol.

Moore and the Birmingham-based Foundation for Moral Law, which receives donations for his legal defense, said the monument, which was removed from the state judicial building rotunda Aug. 27 under a judge’s order, should be in Washington because it has national significance.

“The monument represents the moral foundation of law and the acknowledgment of God upon whom our nation and organic law are predicated,” Moore said Tuesday.

He said if Congress voted to accept the monument, it “would restore the balance of power between the branches of government and would send a message to federal courts that we, the people, have the final word on our inalienable right to acknowledge God.”

Moore was disqualified from acting as Alabama’s chief justice last month when the state Judicial Inquiry Commission filed ethics charges against him for refusing to obey U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson’s order to remove the monument. Thompson had declared the 5,280-pound cube of granite to be an unconstitutional state establishment of religion.

After Moore refused to obey Thompson’s order, the monument was moved to a storage room under orders from the other justices.

Under the terms set out when Moore deeded the monument to the state, it was to become his personal property if it were ever moved. Moore said Tuesday the monument again belongs to him.

Mel Glenn, executive director of the Foundation for Moral Law, said Congress, by accepting the monument and displaying it in the Capitol, would be “bringing God out of the closet” and showing that Congress instead of federal judges protects the nation’s right to acknowledge God.

Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., said he would be willing to help Moore and his supporters with their request. But several offices, including the architect of the U.S. Capitol, have a role in deciding which monuments are displayed on the grounds, and the decision likely would require joint approval of the House of Representatives and Senate.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” said Aderholt, who also is trying to pass a law protecting all government displays of the Ten Commandments. “I can’t imagine it would be unconstitutional.”

Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., who supports the display of the Ten Commandments in context with other important historical documents, was more cautious about whether Moore’s monument should be allowed in the Capitol. He said he would defer to the legal opinions of congressional lawyers.

“I think the issue has always been with the prominence of the display,” Davis said. “And I’m comfortable with the courts resolving the issue.”

(Editors: Mary Orndorff in Washington contributed to this report)

DEA END RNS