Moore v. JUDICIAL INQUIRY COM'N OF STATE

• Decision Date: 30 April 2004
• Citation: 891 So.2d 848
• Parties: Roy S. MOORE v. JUDICIAL INQUIRY COMMISSION OF the STATE OF ALABAMA.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

891 So.2d 848

Roy S. MOORE v. JUDICIAL INQUIRY COMMISSION OF the STATE OF ALABAMA.

1030398.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

April 30, 2004.

Andrew D. Dill, Foundation for Moral Law, Inc., Montgomery; and Phillip L. Jauregui, Birmingham, for appellant.

William H. Pryor, Jr., atty. gen.; Rosa H. Davis, chief asst. atty. gen.; and Charles B. Campbell and Melissa K. Atwood, asst. attys. gen., for appellee.

PER CURIAM.¹

Facts

The material facts are not disputed. Roy S. Moore was elected to the office of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in a statewide general election in November 2000. On January 15, 2001, Moore was sworn in as Alabama's 28th Chief Justice. Pursuant to the Judicial Article adopted in 1973 by constitutional Amendment No. 328 to the Alabama Constitution of 1901, Chief Justice Moore also became the administrative head of Alabama's Unified Judicial System ("The chief justice of the supreme court shall be the administrative head of the judicial system." Ala. Const.1901, Amend. No. 328, § 6.10).

After being elected Chief Justice, Moore designed and commissioned the construction of a granite monument that would, in Chief Justice Moore's words, "depict the moral foundation of law." Without notifying the eight Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Moore installed the monument in the rotunda of the Judicial Building in Montgomery. The Judicial Building houses the Alabama Supreme Court, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts, and the State Law Library. The monument was installed during the night of July 31, 2001.² The monument was positioned in the rotunda of the Judicial Building so that it could be seen by every person entering the Judicial Building through the main entrance and by everyone who crossed the rotunda going to or from the State Law Library, the offices of the clerks of the intermediate appellate courts, and the public stairway, elevator, and restrooms. The monument was aptly described in the opinion of the federal district court in Glassroth v. Moore, 229 F.Supp.2d 1290, 1294-95 (M.D.Ala.2002):

"The monument is in the shape of a cube, approximately three feet wide by three feet deep by four feet tall. The top of the monument is carved as two tablets with rounded tops, the common depiction of the Ten Commandments; these tablets slope toward a person viewing the monument from the front. The tablets are engraved with the Ten Commandments as excerpted from the Book of Exodus in the King James Bible. Due to the slope of the monument's top and the religious appearance of the tablets, the tablets call to mind an open Bible resting on a lectern....

"Engraved on the left tablet is: `I am the Lord thy God'; `Thou shalt have no other Gods before me'; `Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image'; `Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain'; and `Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.' Engraved on the right tablet is: `Honour thy father and thy mother'; `Thou shalt not kill'; `Thou shalt not commit adultery'; `Thou shalt not steal'; `Thou shalt not bear false witness'; and `Thou shalt not covet.' In addition, the four sides of the monument are engraved with fourteen quotations from various secular sources; these sources are identified on the monument to the extent that each quotation is accompanied by the name of a document or an individual. On each side of the monument, one of the quotations is larger than the others and is set apart in relief. The smaller quotations on each side are intended to relate to that larger quotation. The north (front) side of the monument has a large quotation from the Declaration of Independence, `Laws of nature and of nature's God,' and smaller quotations from George Mason, James Madison, and William Blackstone that speak of the relationship between nature's laws and God's laws. The large quotation on the west (right) side of the monument is the National Motto, `In God We Trust'; the smaller quotations on that side were excerpted from the Preamble to the Alabama Constitution and the fourth verse of the National Anthem. The south (back) side of the monument bears a large quotation from the Judiciary Act of 1789, `So help me God,' and smaller quotations from George Washington and John Jay speaking of oaths and justice. The east (left) side of the monument has a large quotation from the Pledge of Allegiance 1954, `One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,' and smaller quotations from the legislative history of the Pledge, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson suggesting that both liberty and morality are based on God's authority....

"... The court is impressed that the monument and its immediate surroundings are, in essence, a consecrated place, a religious sanctuary, within the walls of a courthouse."

When he unveiled the monument, Chief Justice Moore delivered prepared remarks, copies of which were made available to those present at the unveiling. Chief Justice Moore stated that the monument depicted the moral foundation of the law and that it "serves to remind the appellate courts and judges of the circuit and district courts of this State and members of the bar who appear before them, as well as the people of Alabama who visit the Alabama Judicial Building, of the truth stated in the Preamble to the Alabama Constitution that in order to establish justice we must invoke `the favor and guidance of almighty God.'"

The Litigation

Shortly after the monument was installed, two actions were filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, seeking injunctions requiring Chief Justice Moore to remove the monument from the Judicial Building. These actions were consolidated for trial. Glassroth v. Moore, 229 F.Supp.2d at 1293. Following a trial that lasted several days, United States District Judge Myron Thompson issued an opinion on November 18, 2002, holding that by placing the monument in the rotunda of the Judicial Building, Chief Justice Moore had violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution of the United States. Judge Thompson ordered Chief Justice Moore to remove the monument within 30 days of the date of his opinion. The district court did not issue an injunction at the time it issued its opinion, but it stated that if the monument was not removed within 30 days, it would enter an injunction requiring the monument's removal within 15 days of the entry of the injunction. Chief Justice Moore appealed Judge Thompson's ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Chief Justice Moore refused to remove the monument within the 30 days allowed by the November 18 order, and the district court, on December 19, 2002, issued a permanent injunction requiring Chief Justice Moore to remove the monument within 15 days (i.e., by January 3, 2003). Glassroth v. Moore, 242 F.Supp.2d 1067 (M.D.Ala.2002). Chief Justice Moore petitioned the district court for a stay of the injunction pending the disposition of his appeal to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The district court granted the stay. Glassroth v. Moore, 242 F.Supp.2d 1068 (M.D.Ala.2002). On July 1, 2003, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court. Glassroth v. Moore, 335 F.3d 1282 (11th Cir.2003).

Chief Justice Moore did not seek a stay of the judgment of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and did not ask for a rehearing of that decision. On July 30, 2003, the court of appeals issued its mandate directing the district court to enforce its order to remove the monument. Pursuant to the mandate, the district court issued a mandatory injunction on August 5, 2003, requiring that the monument be removed no later than August 20, 2003. In response to this order, Chief Justice Moore issued a public statement on August 14, 2003, in which he said he had "no intention of removing the monument."

Chief Justice Moore did not appeal from the mandatory injunction; however, after the time for filing an appeal had expired, Chief Justice Moore asked the district court to stay the injunction pending the disposition of a petition for a writ of mandamus and prohibition he had filed in the United States Supreme Court.³ On August 18, 2003, the district court denied the stay:

"The Chief Justice could have appealed, and still can appeal, the August 5 final judgment and injunction to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291, 1291 (1994 & Supp.2003). The Chief Justice should not be able to circumvent, or avoid, the Eleventh Circuit and keep that appellate court out of the orderly appellate process.

"....

"... The Chief Justice argues that granting the writ will `aid [the United States Supreme] Court to conduct an orderly and timely review of [his] petition for writ of certiorari.'...

"This argument is completely meritless. Aside from the fact, as stated above, that the Chief Justice can simply seek relief in the Eleventh Circuit from this court's August 5 final judgment and injunction, this court, not once, but twice, invited the Chief Justice to invoke the orderly and established process under the federal rules for a stay of injunction pending a petition to the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari — invitations which the Chief Justice declined."

On August 15, 2003, Chief Justice Moore filed with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals a motion to recall the mandate and a motion to stay the injunction. That motion was denied on August 19. On August 20, 2003, Chief Justice Moore filed with the United States Supreme Court an application for recall and stay. The Supreme Court denied the application that same day.

When the monument was not removed by the August 20, 2003, deadline as ordered by the district court, some of the original plaintiffs filed a motion in the district court asking that court to hold Chief Justice Moore in contempt for refusing to obey...