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According to the governor, the fines set to be levied against the state would increase week by week until, in five or six months, they would equal $1 billion per week if the monument is not moved. He says it is a price tag the taxpayers of Alabama simply can't afford to pay.
Now that Moore has been suspended, a committee of nine people--called a judicial tribunal--will evaluate what happens next. The tribunal consists of judges and lay people. They will have three options of action available to them: They can take no further action, impose additional sanctions or they can permanently remove Moore from his position as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
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Morris Dees, from Southern Poverty Law Center, said that "I can't think of a more fitting and appropriate reason to remove Judge Moore, because he is the highest-ranking judge in the state (of Alabama)...and he openly violates the law."
They pledge they'll have a continued 24 hour a day presence at the building until the monument is allowed to remain in its current location.
Buses and vans from as far away as California brought Moore supporters to Montgomery for an enthusiastic rally on a hot and muggy morning. Evangelist Jerry Falwell and former presidential candidate Dr. Alan Keyes were among a half-dozen speakers urging the crowd to take back America from what Keyes described as the "unruly courts."
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After the rally hundreds of people walked several blocks to the judicial building, where they lined up to view the monument inside. Some debated with about 35 atheists holding a counterprotest across the street.
Moore appeared with orthodox Jewish rabbis in Montgomery who support efforts to keep the monument in the state Supreme Court building.
"If our country does not return to the Biblical values and standards on which it was founded, who knows what could happen to us?" Rabbi Yehuda Levin said.
The monument contains two Ten Commandments tablets cut into the top of a large stone about the size of a washing machine. Along the sides are quotes from Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and other historical figures and documents concerning the influence of religion on American law.
Moore said he had the monument installed because he believes the Ten Commandments to be the moral foundation of American law. He also contended the federal judge had no authority to tell the state's chief justice to remove the monument.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union sued on behalf of three Alabama lawyers who said the monument violated their constitutional rights.
Several religious organizations have urged Christians to come to Montgomery and to kneel in prayer around the monument to block it from being removed.
"The sand is quickly moving through the hour glass as the federal court makes preparation to strip the moral foundation of our law from the Alabama Judicial Building," said John Giles, president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama. "The encroachment of the federal court on this matter will be met with considerable peaceful intervention. A line has been drawn in the sand and there will most likely be a showdown in Montgomery when the hour glass empties on Aug. 20."
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"We would urge the chief justice not to turn an important, sacred religious symbol into a circus device," Khan said. "He ought to remove it as quietly and surreptitiously as he brought it in and save the Alabama public the divisiveness and rancor that would otherwise result."
Officials with three Christian organizations are asking people to kneel in protest to prevent removal of the Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the Alabama Judicial Building.
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In a counterprotest, American Atheists rallied, urging support for the two court decisions and calling for the removal of what they call "religious zealotry" from government.
"The state cannot and should not promote one religion over all others, even if it is the majority religion," American Civil Liberties Union attorney Robert Varley said.
... a rally organizer called for a "crusade to reclaim America for Jesus Christ." "We brought our weapons of war with us," Ted Sobay, of Ozark, told about 350 people who joined in the march. "I've got the Bible in one hand and the Ten Commandments in the other."
