The following are exerpts from last night’s interview of the Chief Justice by Paula Zahn:

ZAHN: And how outraged were when you found out that that was the ruling you were going to have to live by?

MOORE: Well, I was extremely disappointed, disappointed in the officials of our state who have let this happen, disappointed that they would let a judge threaten the state of Alabama to remove acknowledgement of God, which is fundamental to our state and our justice system under the Constitution of Alabama.

Without acknowledgement of God, we have no justice system, according to the Constitution. And that, I’m sworn to uphold.

ZAHN: Your own attorney general suggested that perhaps you view yourself as above the law.

MOORE: Well, you’ve got to consider what the law is.

And that’s the problem. Many people think that what a judge says is law. Indeed, judges can’t make the law. Judges, just like anybody else, are under the law. That’s why we have rule of law. That law is the Constitution of the United States. And the Constitution of the United States is very clear in saying that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

When a judge, a federal district judge, says, I don’t know what the words mean, but this is what I think they mean, he’s entering into a lawless order when he enters the fact that you can’t acknowledge God in your Constitution. And that’s what happened. I’m not defying the law. I’m upholding the law.

ZAHN: Well, you also have some 13 other states out there facing potential conflicts that you have just witnessed. Do you have any travel plans?

MOORE: Well, I’m traveling around speaking on this issue because there’s so many that don’t understand it.

They don’t understand what the Constitution says, what the First Amendment’s about. What the Alabama Constitution says is very clear. And I think there’s too many things going on in this country about the removal of God from our life. And it’s fundamental. Actually, the organic law of our country establishes God as the basis for our justice system.

ZAHN: But when your own attorney general, who personally has no problem with the display of the Ten Commandments, comes out and says that you defied a federal court order, that you are not above the law, and that you should have followed through with what the federal court told you to do—

MOORE: Again, the attorney general is under the law, just like I am. And when that law is being violated, when it’s an unlawful order — and I just was brought this information about Morris Dees [of] the Southern Poverty Law Center, who is in the case against us.

This is what he said in The Washington Post about our attorney general and his actions: “The heat of this battle certainly matured this young man,” Dees said of [Bill] Pryor. “His actions behind the scenes to orchestrate the state officials handling these things saved Alabama from constitutional crisis.”

Now, it bothers me that there’s things going on behind the scenes to orchestrate the denial of our right to acknowledge God under the Constitution. That bothers me.