MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - A moving crew rolled a massive Ten Commandments monument out of the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building yesterday to comply with a federal court order, as anguished protesters prayed at the building's steps.
It took about an hour and a-half to lift the 5,280-pound granite marker and roll it from its public site to a private place in the building.
About 100 pro-monument supporters who have been on a weeklong vigil on the building's front plaza were urged to remain calm and not rush the glass doors. Some yelled, but the crowd was restrained.
Two-dozen city police officers were stationed around the perimeter of the building and others patrolled the surrounding block on motorcycles.
A federal judge ruled last year the monument, which Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore installed two years ago, violates the constitution's ban on government promotion of religion and ordered its removal. The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to hear Moore's request to block removal of the monument; he said he still plans an appeal to the high court on the merits of the case.
Moore refused to comply with the order to move the monument. Eight associate justices voted Aug. 21 to remove it, and Moore was suspended the next day on charges of violating canons of judicial ethics.
"It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge," Moore said in a statement.
His attorney, Phillip Jauregui, said the case is "far from over," with an appeal to be filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Building officials told monument supporters it was moved to a back room, where the top part of the marker - displaying the Ten Commandments - would be removed from the base, which bears engraved quotations from American historical figures and documents. The two parts may later be kept in separate sites.
Robert Varley, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who sued to remove the monument, said the plaintiffs will "have to wait and take a look at where the monument has been moved to before we can say with certainty it's in compliance" with the removal order by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson.
Thompson's order had said the monument could be in a private place in the building but not the highly visible spot in the rotunda directly across from the building's entrance.
Varley said a conference call would be held Friday with Thompson.
"The fact the monument was moved from the rotunda is certainly a step in the right direction," Varley said.
Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, a group fighting the move, said building manager Graham George told him he would be allowed inside to see the monument later.
People seeking removal of the monument from its public site said they were grateful it finally was being moved, a week after the deadline set by a federal judge.
"This is a tremendous victory for the rule of law and respect for religious diversity," the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said before the monument was rolled out of the rotunda. "Perhaps Roy Moore will soon leave the bench and move into the pulpit, which he seems better suited for."
Lynn's organization was among groups suing to remove Moore's monument, which he installed without telling the other eight Supreme Court justices.
Demonstrators promised to keep up their protests of the removal.
"They can move it out of view but they can't move it out of our hearts," said Rick Moser, 47, of Woodstock, Ga., a demonstrator outside the building.
An afternoon hearing had been scheduled in federal court in Mobile on a lawsuit seeking to keep the monument in the rotunda. However, the judge canceled a hearing planned for Wednesday afternoon and issued a 17-page order saying, in part, that he lacked jurisdiction over the removal order issued by Thompson in Montgomery.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of a Christian radio talk show host and a pastor, had argued that forced removal of the monument would violate the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.
Attorney General Bill Pryor had argued that the Mobile court lacked jurisdiction and the complaint lacked merit.
Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the lawsuit relied on "outlandish legal arguments to defend the justice's blatant promotion of religion."
Mahoney has accused Pryor of political grandstanding to aid his nomination to a federal appeals court. The nomination has been stalled by Senate Democrats who attacked the Republican Pryor for stands against abortion and in favor of states' rights.
Pryor has said it is his duty to uphold a federal court order to remove the monument.
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The Associated Press
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Demonstrators lie on the ground and pray in the plaza of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala., yesterday. State officials just complied with a federal court order to move the Ten Commandments monument from public view in the rotunda of the bu
