Belated Realization
At the heart of the refusal by Alabama Chief Justice Ray Moore to remove a monument bearing the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama State Courthouse is a familiar doctrine: nullification..
Moore, who installed the monument in the rotunda of the judicial building two years ago, contends it represents the moral foundation of American law and that a federal judge has no authority to make him remove it.The 11th Circuit earlier this year agreed with a ruling by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, who held the monument violates the constitution's ban on government promotion of religion.
Actually, buddy, I think they do. That question was settled a while back, the last time nullification was seriously advanced as a going concern.
Bum-chapeau.
Posted by
Johno
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I would say it's time to
I would say it's time to bring back the Grand Army of the Republic, and go stomp the rednecks and peckerwoods back into line, except for the fact that I can't bring myself to care whether or not the ten commandments are displayed in the courthouse.
The ten commandments should not be offensive to anyone. Except Buddhists. And they aren't supposed to be offended at all. This is not a big deal. If someone claims to be oppressed by a stone recreation of a five thousand year old law code, they are a whiny, lickspittle crybaby who should be solidly kicked in the nuts.
Just take the hit. It doesn't really matter what the judge puts in his courthouse lobby. Would we be offended by the code of Hammurabi? Its far more brutal and "conservative" than the ten commandments.
Sheesh and Jebus, we have better things to worry about. Like the Peterson case on Court TV.
By the way, I agree.
By the way, I agree.
I just think that it's rather unfortunate that the judge thinks that John C. Calhoun is an appropriate touchstone of legal theory.
Count me as one Southern who
Count me as one Southern who believes that (1) the Ten Commandments should be permissible in any public building and (2) Chief Justice Moore is making a total ass of himself and, to many people (unfortunately), all Southerners.
The Chief Justice of a State Supreme Court should not undermine his own office by defying the rule of law. We are a nation of laws, not men.
For a judge to defy a legitmate court order is, IMHO, grounds for impeachment.
Lemme sharpen my agreement a
Lemme sharpen my agreement a bit now that I've had time to dwell on it overnight. I As I said, I agree it's not a huge deal that Alabama has chosen to put up the Ten Commandments in a courthouse. It's Alabama!
However, their presence in the rotunda does amount to a tacit promotion of Christian doctrine as the fount of jurisprudence in that courthouse. Of course, they sort of are. Sort of. If you go back 2000 years and disregard the various bodies of common and statutory law that have accrued in the meantime. But, under the weight of those very bodies of law, our judges are not allowed to decide cases based upon the express moral precepts of the Ten Commandments, except insofar as they are expressed through the laws of the State of Alabama and the United States of America. For that reason, the big granite moral code in the Alabama Courthouse is simultaneously: foolish; not that big a deal; hopefully irrelevant to the practice of law; and counter to the mission that Judge Moore signed on to do, and Judge Moore is simultaneously: a fool; a damned fool; and a gluteal coiffure.