BREAKING: Supreme Court Refuses to Block Removal of 10 Commandments

[FlashHarry]

On the NY Times site now (3:24 p.m. CST) No story yet.

[Chico Man]

1. Good

Finally some good news today.

[Magleetis]

2. Thank God n/t

[Chico Man]

3. God Bless America (nt)

[WillyT]

4. Great News !!!

:bounce::kick::bounce:

[NewJerseyDem]

5. So CNN was right

They had it on the bottom of the screen 10 minutes ago as news that was "Just in." Then they took it off and pretended like it never happened. I was very confused. I don't know why they didn't say anything.

[wryter2000]

6. Fabulous

They get it right sometimes. Without looking, who do you think voted which way?

[wryter2000]

11. On further thought

They probably declined to hear the case rather than voting on the issue. That's still fine. In fact, if they had heard the case, Moore would have had even more of an audience.

Can we move the cranes in now and remove the thing?

[Ediacara]

43. Scalia, Rehnquist and Thomas still have some idea about the constitution..

If the court HAD heard the case (which would have delayed the "showdown" another 3-4 days, it would have been a unanimous "remove the monument." By rejecting to hear the case, Kennedy (the justice appealed to by Moore) is in effect saying, "we will unanimously reject your case, so we are not even going to waste the time."

I actually wish that the SCOTUS had heard the case, because a 9-0 rulin would have been an increadible bitch-slap to Moore.

[ewagner]

7. Score one for the good guys

:bounce:

[Bake]

8. I'm surprised, really.

I really figured the Scalia Cult would overturn the Court of Appeals. Fortunately, this time the Constitution won.

So what's Judge Roy Bean gonna do?

Bake

[NewJerseyDem]

9. Now what?

I wondered what Moore will do now. He said he wouldn't take it down but now he is dealing with the supreme court. They should send in the national guard.

Does anyone know where the governor of Alabama stands on this?

[0007]

30. Don't worry they may send in the National Guard

It will be good propaganda against us evil bastards. Kind of like the Janet Reno thingy with that little Cuban boy.

[Mari333]

10. Here it is in all its glory

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Ten-Commandments.html?hp


:bounce:

[alcuno]

14. I'd rather not register. Was it just Kennedy?

Or did it go to the whole court?

[NewJerseyDem]

16. Whole court

N/A

[Mari333]

20. Just Kennedy

"had pledged last week to defy the judge's order. His emergency stay request was filed Wednesday with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who oversees cases from Alabama. Kennedy referred it to the full court, which said in a one-sentence order that it was rejected."

[alcuno]

34. So it was the full court

I had heard that Kennedy could do it alone or refer it.

[IndianaGreen]

38. From what I gather, the Supreme Court did not grant Cert

It takes 4 Supremes to agree to take a case and grant certoriari. We can bet that Renhquist, Thomas, and Scalia wanted to take the case, but failed to dissuade the others to go along.

The Appeals Court decision stands!

[NewJerseyDem]

48. Moore wanted the decision stayed

Since he is supposed to remove the commandments by tonight. However, he can still appeal the case to the supreme court, but he will still be required to remove them tonight, but he decided he will violate the court's ruling. He could remove them, appeal to the supreme court, potentially win and put the commandments back. So, it isn't quite over yet, but it is a good sign.

[gristy]

60. Dude, register!

NY Times rocks!

[wryter2000]

15. Idiotic quote

Some idiot was quoted as saying, "You'll never remove it (the monument) from our hearts."

No one is in favor of removing the monument or God or anything else from anyone's heart. It's a government court house it has to be removed from.

[silverweb]

41. Precisely.

That quote was from the Rev. Greg Dixon of Indianapolis Baptist Temple. Are we surprised? :eyes:

Truth be told, I strongly suspect that even their mean-spirited fundy version of God would much prefer that any commandments be enshrined in his followers' hearts rather than a block of granite, anyway. Even their own scriptures have words to that effect in several places, if memory serves.

These people drive me nuts. They're not content with living their own faith. Their entire purpose in all this is to impose their belief structure on everyone else and that is why the wall between church and state must be unassailable.

[gratuitous]

55. Carry it in your heart, indeed!

The paragraph from the story:

"Even if they should remove this monument -- and God forbid they do -- they'll never be able to remove it from our hearts," said the Rev. Greg Dixon of Indianapolis Baptist Temple.

Uh, Rev. Dixon? That's precisely where the commandments should have stayed in the first place. Neither you, nor Judge Dumbass, nor anyone else in the United States or the rest of the world has a right to impose your particular religious beliefs on me or anyone else, and you certainly don't have the right to put that huge boulder in a building paid for by everyone's tax dollars. Judge Dumbass may be the chief justice of the supreme court, but he didn't put that building up, and it'll be there long after his tenure is a sour memory.

Keep the commandments in your heart; don't shove them down my throat.

[goobergunch]

12. It's weird

I have actually been agreeing with the Supreme Court recently. Now that's odd.

:bounce: :bounce:

[benfranklin1776]

13. AMEN!!!

Perchance Judge Moore has seen the light?? No chance of that regrettably no matter how much it costs that state...Methinks rather than the state diverting money to his contempt fund which could be better spent on the needy or on education Judge Moore should serve a contempt term so that he can experience the "joys" of prison firsthand. It might give him a different perspective when reviewing convictions and sentences.......

[Bozola]

17. Total Bullsh*t!

I was just about to erect a granite copy of "Satan's Hot & Fast Guidelines for Buggery, Abortion, Substance Abuse, and the Republican Party".


Damn.

[Terran]

29. Heheh!

Excellent!

[efhmc]

57. Do it anyway!

[onehandle]

18. These small battles....

...fatten the coffers of the Right Wing.

We will pay for this.

[Mari333]

21. No, real christians do not worship Idols

and evangelicals that back up this theocratic shit are not the majority in this country.

[Dhalgren]

19. Halleluyaaaaa!!!!!

Thankk Zeus! Thank Hera! Thank Ahura Mazda! Thank Bramin! Thank all those guys (and lil' Jesus, too)!!! Now, if Att. Gen. Prior wasn't lying last month to the Congress, he'll march in there with a construction crew and some State Troopers and take that mostrosity outta there. And by monstrosity, I speaking in purely artistic terms. That is a terrible sculpture! It could have been done so much better - it looks like a tombstone! Hey, that's an idea!

[genius]

22. Good

religion and government don't mix

[Judi Lynn]

23. From your NY Times article:

(snip) Crowds Flock to Back Alabama Judge on Biblical Monument
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

ONTGOMERY, Ala., Aug. 20 - They came streaming in from all directions, wearing their crosses and Confederate T-shirts, carrying dog-eared bibles and bottles of water and enough Power Bars to outlast a siege.

One man even walked from Texas, 20 miles a day, in a frock.

Their mission: to protect the rock, Roy's rock.

Their morale: high and rising.

Today is the deadline for Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama to remove the 5,280-pound monument of the Ten Commandments he installed in the lobby of the state supreme court.

But the rock ain't moving.

Despite threats of having his state fined $5,000 a day and being held in contempt of court, Justice Moore vowed to disobey a federal court order that begins at midnight. (snip)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

This is OUTSTANDING! Thanks for posting it. It's time these pompous a$$e$ grasp the idea they are NOT holier than others. Just more obnoxious.


Buh bah, Judge Roy S. Moore
:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[ima_sinnic]

37. wtf? is it a church or a courthouse?

what a bunch of hooey!

[FlashHarry]

24. Freeped poll on the subject here:

MSNBC.com

[qb]

25. I wonder if Moore's supporters will make good on their threat

to encircle the sculpture to prevent its removal. Maybe since Saint Scalia couldn't even be bothered to take a stand, they'll all chicken out.

[rabid_nerd]

26. Yay!

[Sperk]

27. who paid for the monument? 5000 lbs must have cost a bundle.

Why don't they just put a 5000 pound copy of the Koran next to it? Or how about the Wiccas? I'm sure they have some sort of holy book.
:evilgrin:

[qb]

33. I wouldn't be satisfied until they had a 5000 lb Humanist Manifesto

[OldCurmudgeon]

50. make it a 5000lb

golden calf of mammon, and all the rethuglicans can worship there!

[eagler]

58. They should allow the manifesto to stand too and Buddha ,realizing that

all of these are a part of America.

[Ediacara]

46. it was a

conservative christian group that payed for it, and it was donatwed (I think) to Moore. Moore, IIRC, had this thing installed in the dead of night with complete secrecy. He KNEW it was illegal from the very beginning, and is a lying SOB...

[David Zephyr]

28. Absolutely the Best News of the Week!

Congratulations, FlashHarry, on breaking this story here at the DU!

:toast:

[prolesunited]

31. Hmm...

I guess Pat Robertson's prayers aren't strong enough. Surely, God will strike them down now.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson urged his nationwide audience Monday to pray for God to remove three justices from the Supreme Court so they could be replaced by conservatives.

``We ask for miracles in regard to the Supreme Court,'' Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's ``The 700 Club.''

Robertson has launched a 21-day ``prayer offensive'' directed at the Supreme Court in the wake of its 6-3 June vote that decriminalized sodomy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-2909105,00.html

[CO Liberal]

36. Pat Robertson HIMSELF Is Offensive

A worthless turd of a human being.

[Zhade]

51. Does that mean I can pray for HIS death?

Because that's basically what he's asking for - "pray, mah brothers and sisters, p-ray! for those wicked, sinful, probably cross-dressing liberal commie inJustices to be 'removed'! And if, Lord blessed is his name, it takes some terrible accident, wink wink, then so be it. Yea, the LORD works in mysterious ways!"

I'm reminded of that old Bloom County bit where Bill the Cat became an evangelical preacher asking for money to have Swaggart, Robertson, etc "called home to heaven". Now there's a cause I would have funded!

[Jacobin]

32. No brainer.

If he wants to display his fricking monument, he should put it on a truck and take it to his church. That is where it belongs.

NOT in a publicly funded building where laws are enforced. That should be an EXTREMELY secular venue.

[Guaranteed]

39. Totally agree. n/t

[FlashHarry]

35. What if it were accompanied by monuments to...

...Hammurabi's Code, the laws of Justinian and the Magna Carta? Would that make it ok? (Just trying to play devil's advocate here. You could posit that those three, along with the 10 Commandments, form the foundation of American law.)

[AndyTiedye]

40. That would be more like it

but you would really have to be inclusive.

Does anyone know if our Constitution is on display in that building?
The Bill of Rights at least?

Those are the law of the land, and should be on display in every courthouse.

The state constitution would be a good addition as well.

[OldCurmudgeon]

52. sure FlashHarry...

as long as they put up my favorite too:

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law

I'm sure that would look just peachy in front of the Ala. supreme courthouse.

[ProudGerman]

62. None of those would work in an American courthouse

Hammurabi's Code requires death for lots of infractions, and some of the punishments are kinda, um silly.

The Magna Carta isn't American, so that's out. I'm not aware of the laws of Justinian, so I won't say anything about it other than I'm off to look it up after this post.

The Ten Commandments are out based on the fact of what they are. What they aren't is the basis for American law, not even close. I don't remember the Bill of Rights mentioning anything about coveting, working on Sunday, worshipping a specific god, or banning other religions. Well, actually the Bill of Rights does mention that last bit, it says that its a big no-no. So, the Ten Commandments actually goes against our Constitution in some ways.

These people need to get it through their dense skulls that though most Americans are Xian, America is NOT a Xian society.

[TreasonousBastard]

42. And on CNN...

"The justices said they would not be drawn, at least for now, into a dispute over whether the monument violates the Constitution's ban on government promotion of religion."

Full story:

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/LAW/08/20/ten.commandments.ap/index.html

[LizW]

44. Oy, people are being arrested now

Where is the Judge? I wanted to see him dragged away, not some poor old gray-haired man.

[bpilgrim]

45. did they just throw us a bone?

or did they stir the pot some more?

exactly, both...

peace

[CO Liberal]

47. From cnn.com

"U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has said he may fine the state about $5,000 a day if the monument is not removed by the end of the day Wednesday. He has said it would be permissible for the monument to be moved to a less public site, such as Moore's office."

Or they can take the monnument and shove it up Moore's ass.

:-)

[Skittles]

49. WHY ISN'T THIS PIOUS F***WAD JUDGE BEING REMOVED?

It is more than obvious he is a religious nutcase who is unfit to be a judge.

[tnlefty]

54. agree except that I think that he should be removed because he is a

judge who is defying a court order. What does he do when someone defies a ruling from his court?

Disrobe him!!!! snicker

[NewJerseyDem]

56. Because the people of Alabama elected him

I don't know if there is any easy way to get rid of a judge. If those Alabamans want him as their judge than so be it. There must be something wrong with the water down there. I saw rumors online that he might run for senate. Wouldn't that be scary, Senator Roy Moore.

[Sterling]

59. Doesn't mean he shouldn't go to jail for contempt.

I see other folks who violate court orders going to jail why should the state pay for his imaturity?

[ElsewheresDaughter]

61. IMPEACH JUDGE MOORE

[realFedUp]

53. Move that rock out.

Arrest those people.

[Rex]

63. Still doesn't make up for what they did in 2000.

Could it be that they are feeling GUILTY for their role in the 2000 coup? At least they got this one right!