NEWS STORY: Alabama Judge Dons Robe Bearing Ten Commandments

c. 2004 Religion News Service ANDALUSIA, Ala. _ A rural Alabama judge began wearing a robe embroidered with the Ten Commandments to court this week, in his own way echoing the statement made by the state Supreme Court chief justice ousted over a Ten Commandments display. Covington County Presiding Circuit Court Judge Ashley McKathan said […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

ANDALUSIA, Ala. _ A rural Alabama judge began wearing a robe embroidered with the Ten Commandments to court this week, in his own way echoing the statement made by the state Supreme Court chief justice ousted over a Ten Commandments display.

Covington County Presiding Circuit Court Judge Ashley McKathan said he ordered the robe and had it embroidered using his own money. He said he was standing up for his own personal religious convictions.


“Truth is an absolute value,” McKathan said, “and you can’t divorce the law from the truth. I feel we must resist the modern attempts to discount the truth.”

Roy Moore lost his job as Alabama’s top jurist in late 2003 for defying a federal court order calling for removal of a stone monument of the Ten Commandments that he ordered placed in the rotunda of the state Supreme Court building.

Moore’s monument became a focal point for nationwide debate over religion’s place in government, and Moore himself has become an icon to Christian conservatives.

Attorney Riley Powell of Andalusia and Gulf Shores said Tuesday he filed a motion objecting to the robe in a case before McKathan.

“I was representing an airline pilot who was accused of driving under the influence,” Powell said. “It’s not that I am anti-Christian in the least. In fact, on a personal level I respect what Judge McKathan is doing very much.

“It’s just the robe has created a great distraction in the courtroom with media present and cameras. And when the judge wears his personal views on his chest, does that influence the jury?” Powell asked. “Does it send a signal or change what a juror’s own beliefs might be? My client is entitled to a trial without that distraction or those issues.”

McKathan denied the motion objecting to the robe and another motion asking for a delay in the trial, Powell said.


The robe is black with gold lettering on the chest about the size of the numbers on a football jersey. Powell said he has known McKathan for many years and has never known him to seek publicity.

Larry Darby, president of American Atheists, a Montgomery-based nonprofit legal advocacy group, learned of the embroidered display from a reporter Tuesday.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Darby said when told. “I think he’s making a mockery of his office, the judicial system and the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution. It’s unbelievable and absurd.”

Moore issued a statement in support of McKathan on Tuesday.

“The recognition of the God who gave us the Ten Commandments is fundamental to an understanding of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Moore said. “I applaud Judge McKathan. It is time for our judiciary to recognize the moral basis of our law.”

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Moore rose to prominence as Alabama’s “Ten Commandments judge” when he placed a wood plaque of the biblical directives in his Etowah County courtroom. The American Civil Liberties Union sued over the display, saying people who did not share his publicly displayed religious beliefs did not feel they would be treated fairly in his courtroom.

McKathan said he is aware there could be court battles over his robe because “there is a potential constitutional issue.” He said he does not want a legal fight but is prepared should one come.


“I see the Ten Commandments as a connection to the truth,” he said. “The scriptural truth is the underlying foundation for the law. It has sustained Western civilization for centuries. Without the truth, you can throw the law away.”

PH MO END BAGGETT

(Connie Baggett is a staff writer for the Mobile (Ala.) Register.)

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