Alabama Judge Orders Removal of 'No Parking' Signs
(2003-08-20) -- A federal judge in Alabama has ordered the state to remove "No Parking" signs currently posted around government buildings.
"The signs are a relic of an antiquated morality that allows a small group of people to impose their will on the majority," the unnamed judge wrote. "We learned during Prohibition that you cannot solve problems by passing laws and punishing wrongdoers. What right does the state have to say 'Thou shalt not park'?"
The judge said his ruling is consistent with precedent which forbids the posting of the so-called "Ten Commandments" in a state judicial building.
"The law has no foundation, Divine or otherwise," he wrote. "The law is what the court says it is today, and if it says something else tomorrow, then that is the law."
Alabama Monument Stays, Commandments Repealed
(2002-08-22) -- An Alabama federal judge ruled tonight that a monument inscribed with the so-called 10 Commandments can stay in the state judicial building, however, the judge's order repeals the actual commandments.
"This case isn't about a big chunk of stone," wrote the unnamed federal judge. "The real problem is the commandments themselves. I hereby repeal all 10 of the commandments."
The judge wrote that the commandments are "antiquated, provincial and short-sighted. Our modern ideas of what constitutes murder, adultery, theft and lying are much more progressive."
"The monument can stay in the building," the judge wrote, "as a relic of a bygone era when our simple-minded ancestors believed this kind of thing -- a time when people still thought of things in terms of right and wrong."
Justice Moore Installs Oath of Office Monument
(2003-08-22) -- Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore today ordered the installation of another stone monument in the rotunda of the state judicial building.
The move comes as Justice Moore continues to defy a federal judge's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the building.
The new monument is a simple stone block engraved on top with the words of the Alabama state oath of office which Justice Moore and other state officials have sworn to uphold.
Here is the text of the oath: "I solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of Alabama, so long as I continue a citizen thereof; and that I will faithfully and honestly discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, to the best of my ability. So help me God."
The front of the monument bears these words from the preamble to the Alabama Constitution: "We, the people of the State of Alabama, in order to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution and form of government for the State of Alabama"
One side of the monument contains a phrase from the U.S. Declaration of Independence: "...with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."
The other side of the stone displays part of the text of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
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Is the Captain a member of the proud <b>2%</b>?
This message was edited by Se7en on 8-24-03 @ 11:05 PM