Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy S. Moore accepted an invitation to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights, yesterday in the Senate Office Building, in Washington, D.C.
According to a letter received by Moore from the Senate Subcommittee chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), “the hearing, entitled ‘Beyond the Pledge of Allegiance: Hostility to Religious Expression in the Public Square,’ was to focus on examples of hostility toward private expressions of faith in the public square, as well as discrimination against religious, as opposed to non-religious, expression in government speech.”
Tuesday’s hearing drew an overflow crowd and many where there to hear from Roy Moore. Moore accused federal courts of misunderstanding the First Amendment, which prohibits the “establishment of religion” while protecting “the free exercise thereof.”
Excerpt of his testimony before the subcommittee:
If, by “defying the rule of law” my critics mean that I have defied federal judges, then they are equating “the law” with the pronouncements of those judges. That is not our system. It appears that, in addition to forgetting that acknowledgments of God hold a vital and plainly constitutional place in our public discourse, we have also forgotten the basic concept that the legislature makes the law and the judiciary interprets the law. The two are separate, distinct functions...
...A judge’s ruling is an opinion on the law, not the law itself: the opinion carries the weight of the law behind it only so long as it remains faithful to the text of the law. When a judge blatantly misinterprets the law or fails to interpret the law at all, his opinion is no longer clothed in the authority of the law. If this was not the case, unelected federal judges could replace the law on a whim through their own opinions. See Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393, 621 (1856) (Curtis, J., dissenting). However, judges swear an oath to the Constitution, not to themselves or another person, precisely to prevent this very possibility. See U.S. Const. Art. VII.
As an officer of the courts, I, like the federal district judge, swore an oath to the Constitution. All judges have a duty to faithfully interpret the law of the Constitution. Furthermore, I also solemnly swore to “faithfully and honestly discharge the duties of the office” of Chief Justice of Alabama. The Chief Justice is the chief administrator of the Alabama judicial system, which carries with it an additional responsibility “[t]o take affirmative and appropriate action to correct or alleviate any condition or situation adversely affecting the administration of justice within the state.” Section 12-2-30(b)(7), Ala. Code 1975. The Alabama Constitution states that “the people . . . in order to establish justice . . . [and] invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution and form of government for the State of Alabama.” Ala. Const. 1901, pmbl. Under these provisions, it was part of my duty as Chief Justice to acknowledge God as the foundation of our justice system.
By ordering me to remove the monument, the federal district court in effect commanded me to violate the oath I swore as Chief Justice of Alabama. The federal district court had no authority to do this because the responsibility to administer the justice system of the State of Alabama is a power clearly not delegated to the federal government under the U.S. Constitution, and, therefore, under the 10th Amendment, is “reserved to the States . . . .”
Click here to read the entire testimony of Chief Justice Moore
http://judiciary.senate.gov/testimony.cfm?id=1218&wit_id=3518
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