Ten Commandments Fight May Head to D.C.
By GINA HOLLAND
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)--The Supreme Court was urged Friday to block the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from an Alabama court, part of an unusual legal strategy by the state's defiant top judge.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has vowed to ignore a federal court order to move the 5,300-pound granite monument from the state judicial building. A federal judge ruled that the monument violates the Constitution's ban on government promotion of religion and must be removed by next week.
Moore's lawyers, in an extraordinary appeal at the Supreme Court, were challenging the judge's authority to tell Moore, and other state officials, what to do. Moore ``has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and here's a judge's opinion that tells him he must do something that is contrary to his oath,'' said Moore's attorney, Herbert Titus.
Titus said the paperwork was filed Friday. It was unclear when it would be processed and reviewed by the justices, who are on their summer break.
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