On August 6, U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson ordered the chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state’s Judicial Building within 15 days. Judge Thomspon made it clear that he is prepared to hold the state in contempt if the removal order is not honored by August 20.
Yet, Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore has so far refused to say whether he will comply with a court order to remove the giant monument to the Ten Commandments he installed in Alabama’s high court, and he has suggested that the federal courts lack the power to make him do so. Two federal courts — including the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta — have declared the monument a violation of the First Amendment, which prohibits state establishments of religion.