On this day in Alabama history: Ten Commandments monument fight took center stage

August 21, 2003

Alabama’s top judge, Chief Justice Roy Moore, was embroiled in a very public dispute over a Ten Commandments monument in the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building. Two years earlier, Moore had placed in the state judicial building a 5,280-pound granite block monument, which was covered with quotes from the Declaration of Independence, the national anthem and various Founding Fathers, with the Ten Commandments resting on top. Months later, several groups filed suit for the monument to be removed. In 2002, a federal judge ruled the monument must be removed but Moore refused. The ruling was upheld on appeal. On Aug. 21, 2003, the other eight justices on the Alabama Supreme Court voted to remove the monument. Moore that November was removed from his position as chief justice for defying the court order to remove the monument, but would return to political office years later.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

The monument at the center of the Alabama church-state controversy of the early 2000s included a carving of the Ten Commandments on two tablets, as well as other religious language, in violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore stirred controversy in 2001 by displaying a religious monument that included the Ten Commandments in the state’s court building in Montgomery. In 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary ordered the monument removed and terminated Moore’s term in office. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)

Republican U.S. senatorial candidate Roy Moore speaks during a campaign event at Oak Hollow Farm on Dec. 5, 2017 in Fairhope. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.