I missed this story last week because I was out of town, but Judge Roy Moore, who was ousted from the Alabama Supreme Court in 2003 for refusing to obey numerous Federal Court orders to remove a Ten Commandments display from the Alabama Supreme Court, has announced plans to run for Governor of Alabama in 2006. He’ll be running as a Republican and will have to defeat sitting Governor Bob Riley to make to the General Election; not an easy task, but not impossible given the populist support that Moore’s Ten Commandments “crusade” received two years ago.
Stephen Littau over at Fearless Philosophy for Free Minds has an excellent post up detailing why a Governor Roy Moore would not be such a good idea.
As dangerous as Moore was as a judge, his campaign is an all-out assault against the establishment clause (separation of church and state) of the First Amendment and against personal liberty. On his website, judgeroymoore.net Moore outlines the five planks of his campaign tiled: Return Alabama To The People. The first four planks of his platform are what most Conservatives and Libertarians would want; the last plank however, is a complete deal breaker: ?Preserve our moral heritage.? Whose ?moral heritage? is he referring to?
Here is plank five in all its ugliness:
Morality - Preserve our moral heritage.
- Defend the right of every person to include teachers, judges, and state, county and municipal offices to publicly acknowledge God as the moral foundation of law, liberty, and government.
- Oppose gambling, pornography, and same-sex marriage.
- Secure God-given inalienable rights of life, liberty, and property.
In other words, an evangelical Christian theocracy.
Stephen goes on to give a pretty through fisking to the elements of Moore’s “moral heritage” platform and concludes with this excellent paragraph:
Like so many Americans, Judge Moore is under the false impression that the United States is a democracy rather than a representative constitutional republic. What?s the difference? The difference is that individuals have the rights of Life, Liberty, and Property (and all rights which fall under these rights) regardless of the majority?s wishes in a representative republic. In a democracy, there are no such assurances. In a free society, there will always be certain individuals, views, and behavior that is unpopular; we all must recognize this. My opposition to Roy Moore is not because he is an evangelical Christian, I am opposed to Moore because he wants to make his personal beliefs law while he ignores laws he does not agree with. Moore only wants to return Alabama to certain people of his faith. Bans on such things as gambling, pornography (any literature which the theocrats find objectionable), and gay marriage does not sound like the sort of laws which are characteristic of a free country. Our American heritage is one of personal liberty, not one reminiscent of a theocracy. Hopefully Alabama voters will recognize this
Well said. I consider Roy Moore a threat not only because of his views, though, but because he thought nothing of ignoring the Orders of a Court that had superseding jurisdiction over him, over the Appellate Courts that sustained that decision, and even his own fellow members of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was absolutely convinced that he was right and everyone else was wrong and choose to ignore the rule of law completely. That is precisely what we don’t need in a Judge, or a Governor.
Linked with today’s Beltway Traffic Jam
