Judge Roy Moores monument to the Ten Commandments may
have been locked up in a private room in the Alabama Supreme Court building,
but the ruling to remove the monument has sparked a national debate that shows
no sign of letting up.
Judge Roy Moores monument to the Ten Commandments may
have been locked up in a private room in the Alabama Supreme Court building,
but the ruling to remove the monument has sparked a national debate that shows
no sign of letting up.
Richard Land said he, like a majority of Americans, is displeased
with the direction the courts are pushing the country. And he doesnt plan
on letting this issue rest, saying his concern with the way Judge Roy Moore
handled the federal court order to remove the monument that featured the Ten
Commandments and quotes from Americas founding fathers will not dampen
his longstanding efforts to warn Americans that some judges appear intent on
eroding the nations constitutional protections on religious expression.
Land, president of the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics
& Religious Liberty Commission, told USA Today the order to remove the monument
in Montgomery was just another in a long line of efforts to forbid and restrict
what the Aug. 28 article referred to as “the images and language of faith.”
The problem is not the posting of the Ten Commandments in public
buildings, the real problem is federal judges running roughshod over a right
to religious expression that is secured for citizens, including Judge Moore,
in the U.S. Constitutions First Amendment, Land said.
The order by Federal Judge Myron Thompson to remove the Ten
Commandments was a “terrible ruling,” Land said on his nationally
syndicated talk show, “Richard Land Live!” Aug. 23. He said this “ruling
is bigger than a statue in the Alabama Supreme Court building,” calling
it further evidence of an ongoing pattern of attempts by judges to “impose
a secular bias on public places.”
He said the issue at its heart is whether Americans are going
to allow the federal courts to tell citizens they cant express their religious
convictions or “acknowledge Americas religious heritage.”
“I believe we need to use our power as citizens to change
the laws and change the judges,” he said. “This is blatant and rank
discrimination against Christianity and against our Judeo-Christian heritage.”
Warning the country has a “runaway, dictatorial judiciary,”
he said, “Were getting to a point where there are a lot of people
who are being forced to choose between their conscience and obeying court orders,”
in an Aug. 28 Washington Post story.
Land said he believes there is a direct connection between
the order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Supreme Court
building in Montgomery, Ala., and the offices of the minority leadership of
the U.S. Senate in Washington.
The linkage? A refusal of Senate Democrats to allow a vote
on President Bushs judicial nominees who will strictly interpret the Constitution,
Land said.
In an appearance on Fox News Networks “The OReilly
Factor,” Land urged viewers to contact their senators and urge them to
drop the filibuster that is holding up a vote on the nominees.
“Tell your senators you dont want them to filibuster
these nominees,” Land said Aug. 27. “You want Bushs strict constructionist
nominees on the court.”
Land reminded OReilly that Alabama State Attorney General
Bill Pryor, who has been at the center of the controversy of the federal court
order to remove the monument, is himself a nominee for the 11th Circuit Court
of Appeals. This is the “very 11th Circuit that ruled so wrongly in this
case,” he said.
Pryors nomination was voted out of the Senate Judiciary
committee on July 23 on a 10-9 party-line vote for consideration by the full
Senate. But like other Bush nominees to the Circuit Court, no vote has been
taken. Cloture votes to break the Democrats filibuster of Miguel Estrada,
nominee to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Priscilla Owen, nominee to
the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, have failed. Carolyn Kuhl, a nominee to the
9th Circuit Court of Appeals, still awaits Senate action. Kuhl is a nominee
to the same court that ruled the inclusion of “under God” in the Pledge
of Allegiance was unconstitutional.
In a May 9 Baptist Press story, Land said Senate Democrats
were “engaging in a grotesque misuse of minority power.”
“This is not a partisan issue,” he continued. “This
is a constitutional issue. I would feel the same way if it were a Democrat president
whose judicial nominees had been abused in this manner.
“The Constitution does not [allow] the Senate to advise and obstruct,
but either to advise and consent or advise and deny by voting down a nominee,”
he said. (BP)