Judge Roy Moore

• Born: February 11, 1947
• Place of Birth: Gadsden, Alabama

Alabama jurist and politician Roy Moore often attracted controversy for his extreme right-wing views, including racism, homophobia, and religious intolerance. Dubbed the "Ten Commandments Judge" for his controversial display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom, he was removed from his post but later reelected. He lost a 2017 special election for the US Senate amid accusations that he had sexually assaulted several women, including teenagers.

Roy Moore was born on February 11, 1947, in Alabama. He graduated from US Military Academy at West Point and studied law at the University of Alabama School of Law. Following law school, he became the first full-time deputy district attorney for Etowah County, Alabama. In 1982, Moore ran an unsuccessful campaign for circuit court judge of Etowah County. He returned to Gadsden, where he established a private practice. In 1986, he ran another unsuccessful campaign, this time for district attorney.

Moore remained politically inactive until his appointment by Governor Guy Hunt as Etowah County judge. Upon taking his position, Moore decorated his courtroom with various state and legal symbols. He also placed a handmade wooden Ten Commandments plaque behind his bench "to reflect [his] belief in the Supreme Lawgiver of the universe . . . [and] to acknowledge God." Moore also opened his court with prayer every day.

In June, 1993, Joel Sogol, an attorney with the Alabama chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), threatened to file suit against anyone who conducted public prayer in court, but Moore was not deterred. The ACLU recorded Moore's prayer in June, 1994, and continued to threaten lawsuit. During that summer, Moore began campaigning for circuit judge, facing opposition led by the ACLU regarding his public prayer and Ten Commandments display. November witnessed his election by nearly 60 percent of those voting.

The ACLU filed suit in US district court against Moore regarding his prayer and Ten Commandments plaque, declaring the prayer a "religious test." However, on July 7, 1995, the judge dismissed the case, determining that the plaintiffs lacked standing. The ACLU filed complaint again in 1996, and trial began in September of that year. The judge in the trial declared the plaque constitutional but the prayer unconstitutional; though prayers had to cease, Moore's display was permissible as part of a historical display. In February, 1997, the judge from the trial visited Moore's courtroom and determined that the display must be removed. An appeal set before the Alabama Supreme Court was ultimately dismissed in January 1998. Increasingly confident, Moore declared his campaign for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court on December 7, 1999.

Subsequent Events

Judge Moore was sworn in as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court on January 15, 2001. Justice Moore installed a two-ton monument of the Ten Commandments in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building on July 31, 2001. He faced lawsuits from the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center in the federal courts in 2002 and 2003. The monument was removed from the rotunda by order of a judge, and Moore was removed from his position as chief justice.

Moore wanted to return to the bench, and in 2012 he finally had an opportunity to do so, winning the Republican nomination for chief justice of Alabama over incumbent Chuck Malone. He went on to defeat Democrat Bob Vance in the general election. However, he once again faced ethics complaints in 2015, when he ordered probate judges and their employees to ignore the federal Supreme Court decision overturning bans on same-sex marriage throughout the country and to continue to enforce Alabama's ban by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Despite official complaints and lawsuits from couples denied licenses, he continued to stand by this order. In May 2016, the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission charged Moore with six ethical violations relating to his unwillingness to comply with a federal injunction. He was suspended from the court pending his trial. In September of that year, Moore was found guilty of all six charges and was suspended for the remainder of his term; his attempt to appeal this decision was unsuccessful.

Shortly after his failed appeal, Moore resigned from the Alabama Supreme Court and announced his candidacy for the US Senate, in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Jeff Sessions's appointment as attorney general. Though President Donald Trump and the Republican establishment supported Moore's primary opponent Luther Strange, Moore defeated him, securing the Republican nomination by nearly ten percentage points.

In November 2017, a month before the date of the special election, four women made allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore, one alleging that he had initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was fourteen and he was thirty-two. A fifth woman then came forward to allege that Moore had sexually assaulted her when she was sixteen. Many Republican politicians rescinded their support of Moore and called for him to step down and allow a different Republican candidate to run in his place. Moore, however, maintained that the charges were not true. Trump, who had faced his own accusations of sexual misconduct, formally endorsed Moore shortly before the election, and the Republican National Committee also renewed its support.

In the general election Moore was ultimately defeated by Democratic opponent Doug Jones, with 48.4 percent of the vote to Jones's 49.9. He initially refused to concede, but the margin, while narrow, was not narrow enough to trigger an automatic recount, and Moore could not afford to initiate one. In April 2018, he filed a lawsuit against his accusers, claiming that they were part of a political conspiracy against him. In June 2019 Moore announced he would officially run for the same Senate seat in the 2020 election, drawing criticism from national Republicans who wished to avoid further scandal. However, Moore lost the Republican primary.

Bibliography

Bidgood, Jess, Richard Fausset, and Campbell Robertson. "For Roy Moore, a Long History of Combat and Controversy." The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/us/roy-moore-alabama.html. Accessed 22 May 2023.

Feldman, Noah. Divided by God: America's Church-State Problem—and What We Should Do About It. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.

Itkowitz, Colby, and Paul Kane. "Roy Moore, Who Fell Short with 2017 Senate Bid, Says He Will Run Again for Alabama Seat." The Washington Post, 20 June 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/roy-moore-who-fell-short-in-senate-bid-in-2017-says-he-will-run-again-for-alabama-seat/2019/06/20/b1b1dade-92e7-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803‗story.html. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Jacobs, Ben. "Roy Moore Beats Trump-Backed 'Big Luther' in Alabama Republican Senate Primary." The Guardian, 27 Sept. 2017, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/26/alabama-senate-primary-republican-roy-moore-luther-strange. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Manchester, Julia. "Roy Moore Files Lawsuit Claiming Political Conspiracy against Him." The Hill, 30 Apr. 2018, thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/385557-roy-moore-files-lawsuit-claiming-political-conspiracy-against. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Marr, Chris. "Ex-Alabama Justice Roy Moore Argues Solo to Revive Libel Case." Bloomberg Law, 12 Dec. 2023, news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/ex-alabama-justice-roy-moore-argues-solo-to-revive-libel-case. Accessed 22 May 2024.

Moore, Roy, with John Perry. So Help Me God: The Ten Commandments, Judicial Tyranny, and the Battle for Religious Freedom. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2005.

Shabad, Rebecca. "GOP Senate Candidate Accused of Sexual Encounter with Minor." CBS News, 9 Nov. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/report-gop-senate-candidate-roy-moore-initiated-sexual-encounter-with-14-year-old-girl-when-he-was-32/. Accessed 22 May 2024.