An Open Letter in Support of Alabama's Ten Commandments Monument

A monument of the Ten Commandments placed in the rotunda of Alabama's Supreme Court building by Chief Justice Roy Moore, is the front line of the war over the First, Ninth and Tenth Amendment restrictions on the central government by our Constitution's Bill of Rights. An order by U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson to remove the monument has been upheld by 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Thompson has set a deadline of August 20 for the removal. Justice Moore is accused of ridiculing the Constitution, and has been warned by that his "states' rights" argument will not be tolerated. Justice Moore, of course, is rightly defending the original intent of the Founders, who drafted and approved the Bill of Rights, against years of erroneous interpretation by an activist Leftjudiciary.

This case, now being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court is a major test case for states' rights and the so-called church-state "separation clause," and ultimately will determine the fundamental nature of government and the Constitution. To assess the importance of this case, consider this evaluation from 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ed Carnes, who ruled against Justice Moore: "If Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument were allowed to stand, it would mean a massive revision of how the courts have interpreted the First Amendment for years." Indeed, it would.

The only way the federal court's ruling could be construed as valid and binding is if the monument violates constitutional law; the only way the issue could be construed as contrary to constitutional law is on the basis of a prevalent, though dangerously flawed, interpretation of the so-called "Separation Clause" of the First Amendment, which clearly states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." The First Amendment decrees no "wall of separation" on the establishment of religion by a given state, and further, this monument does not constitute "establishment of religion" in any sense.

Our Founders expected that federal judges would abide by the letter of the law -- the original intent of the Constitution, and not interpret that venerable document to comport with the vagaries of their own political and social agendas. But Thomas Jefferson, in his great wisdom, doubted that judges would uphold the original intent of the Constitution, writing that the republic risked the "tyrannical" whims of a "a despotic branch." Indeed, Mr. Jefferson was right.

Simply put, the federal government has no Constitutional basis on which to preempt the state's position in this case. Therefore, we, the people, support Chief Justice Roy Moore in his battle for the preservation of our Constitution, religious freedom and states' rights.