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Wednesday, August 20, 2003 Posted: 10:48 PM EDT (0248 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Protesters were arrested at an Alabama state judicial building after the U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to block a lower court's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the building.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore will technically be in contempt of court if the monument is not removed by 12:01 a.m. CT (1:01 a.m. ET).
Moore vowed after the Supreme Court decision to continue the fight and said he expects to be vindicated.
"If we do not acknowledge God we do not know where our rights come from. We are standing for the law," he told CNN'S 'Newsnight.'
In a statement immediately after the ruling, Moore said: "The U.S. Supreme Court denial of a stay today will not deter me from continuing to fight for the right of our state to acknowledge God as the moral foundation of our law.
"I still have pending a petition for writ of mandamus and prohibition in the Supreme Court. I will also petition the Supreme Court for an appeal on the merits in this case."
State Attorney General Bill Pryor said earlier that officials were prepared to remove the 3-foot-high, 5,300-pound granite monument from the building in the Alabama capital of Montgomery "very soon."
Two federal courts had previously upheld the removal order, saying the monument is unconstitutional.
Moore, who installed the monument in the building's rotunda two years ago following his election to the state's highest judicial post, asked the high court to temporarily block enforcement of the removal order pending further appeals.
Herbert Titus, Moore's attorney, asked the court in a written appeal "to permit the chief justice to fulfill the campaign promise that he made to the citizens of Alabama to restore the moral foundation of law."
But in a one-sentence order the nine Supreme Court justices said they would not intervene in the dispute, at least for now.
In 1980, the Supreme Court prohibited the Ten Commandments from being displayed in public school classrooms. But it has never ruled on whether displays in other government buildings are constitutional.
After the high court's decision, a few dozen protesters gathered inside the rotunda at the monument in prayerful protest. When they refused a police order to leave the building, many were arrested.
Protests outside the building continued peacefully, with those both for and against the decision holding signs on the stairs to the building. Earlier Wednesday, several preachers led a group of about three dozen people in prayer.
One man told CNN, "I think if you stand for this country, this whole country was founded on 'In God we trust.' I think that if you were to put it in those terms, I think, yeah, everyone should defy it [the court order]."
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson threatened to fine the state $5,000 a day if the monument was not taken down by the Wednesday deadline he set when he ruled it violates the Constitution's prohibition of government promotion of religion.
"This is not about a monument or politics or religion," Moore said Wednesday on CNN. "It's about the acknowledgment of God, and the judge made that perfectly clear in closing argument when he said the issue is, 'Can the state acknowledge God?'
"He simply said we cannot. And that conflicts with the Alabama Constitution, which says our justice system is established in invoking the guidance of almighty God."
-- CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Protesters were arrested at an Alabama state judicial building after the U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to block a lower court's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the building.
Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore will technically be in contempt of court if the monument is not removed by 12:01 a.m. CT (1:01 a.m. ET).
Moore vowed after the Supreme Court decision to continue the fight and said he expects to be vindicated.
"If we do not acknowledge God we do not know where our rights come from. We are standing for the law," he told CNN'S 'Newsnight.'
In a statement immediately after the ruling, Moore said: "The U.S. Supreme Court denial of a stay today will not deter me from continuing to fight for the right of our state to acknowledge God as the moral foundation of our law.
"I still have pending a petition for writ of mandamus and prohibition in the Supreme Court. I will also petition the Supreme Court for an appeal on the merits in this case."
State Attorney General Bill Pryor said earlier that officials were prepared to remove the 3-foot-high, 5,300-pound granite monument from the building in the Alabama capital of Montgomery "very soon."
Two federal courts had previously upheld the removal order, saying the monument is unconstitutional.
Moore, who installed the monument in the building's rotunda two years ago following his election to the state's highest judicial post, asked the high court to temporarily block enforcement of the removal order pending further appeals.
Herbert Titus, Moore's attorney, asked the court in a written appeal "to permit the chief justice to fulfill the campaign promise that he made to the citizens of Alabama to restore the moral foundation of law."
But in a one-sentence order the nine Supreme Court justices said they would not intervene in the dispute, at least for now.
In 1980, the Supreme Court prohibited the Ten Commandments from being displayed in public school classrooms. But it has never ruled on whether displays in other government buildings are constitutional.
After the high court's decision, a few dozen protesters gathered inside the rotunda at the monument in prayerful protest. When they refused a police order to leave the building, many were arrested.
Protests outside the building continued peacefully, with those both for and against the decision holding signs on the stairs to the building. Earlier Wednesday, several preachers led a group of about three dozen people in prayer.
One man told CNN, "I think if you stand for this country, this whole country was founded on 'In God we trust.' I think that if you were to put it in those terms, I think, yeah, everyone should defy it [the court order]."
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson threatened to fine the state $5,000 a day if the monument was not taken down by the Wednesday deadline he set when he ruled it violates the Constitution's prohibition of government promotion of religion.
"This is not about a monument or politics or religion," Moore said Wednesday on CNN. "It's about the acknowledgment of God, and the judge made that perfectly clear in closing argument when he said the issue is, 'Can the state acknowledge God?'
"He simply said we cannot. And that conflicts with the Alabama Constitution, which says our justice system is established in invoking the guidance of almighty God."
-- CNN's Bill Mears contributed to this report.
