JW Talks About the Moral Decline in America on The JW Report Television Show
An Interview with Judge Roy Moore, Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court

Larry Klayman: A federal judge ruled that a monument installed in an Alabama judicial building by Chief Justice, Judge Roy Moore, must be removed because it violates the separation of church and state. Judge Roy Moore is a friend of Judicial Watch and installed the monument this summer without informing the other justices. The Chief Justice testified that he installed the monument partly because of concern that the country has suffered a moral and ethical decline over the last 40-50 years. And as a result of this federal court ruling, including those against prayer in the public schools, in our opinion it continues to decline even further. Is the display unconstitutional or simply the basis of our legal system under the First Amendment? Joining us on the phone is a hero, our friend Judge Roy Moore, Chief Justice from Alabama. Judge Moore…

Judge Moore: Kindly thanks, sir.

Klayman: Thanks for joining us. One of the things that I was saying off camera was that I never understood the debate over the Ten Commandments because quite apart from it being religious and it obviously came to us through the ancient Hebrews and it was later adopted by Napoleon when he created his Napoleonic code. It finds its way into the common law system and even for those people who are not religious it is clearly a part of our legal system. So what¹s the big deal here? Why is everyone giving you such a hard time?

Moore: Well it’s not about the Ten Commandments at all. It’s about the source of the Ten Commandments that is the issue in controversy. Whether or not the state in general, the state of Alabama, or the US government can acknowledge the God of the Holy Scriptures, the Judeo-Christian God on which this nation was founded and with which our laws are based. It’s not about the Ten Commandments because the Judge said that the Ten Commandments are a basic source of our moral foundation and our forefathers looked to them for guidance. But he said we crossed the line when we acknowledged the Judeo-Christian God.

Klayman: You went into this controversy a number of years ago by hanging the Ten Commandments in your courtroom. You didn’t acknowledge the source then. You just simply hung it.

Moore: We have always acknowledged the source of the Ten Commandments. It’s God. Klayman: Was that written on what you hung on your wall?

Moore: Yes. The problem is that people across our country have been taught that it is wrong to acknowledge God under the First Amendment and indeed they misunderstand the definition of religion in the First Amendment. Religion is not synonymous with God. It is the duties in which we owe to the creator and the matter of discharging those duties. That is what Congress was forbidden to get involved with and establish. It was not to forbid the acknowledgement of God.

Klayman: Any God you want?

Moore: The First Amendment addressed the Greater God. The First Amendment gives freedom of conscience. The government does not have control over what you think or what you worship. By the display of the Ten Commandments we are not telling people what they must believe, or what they must worship. We are simply acknowledging the God who gave us freedom of conscience and gave us laws upon which our laws are based.

Klayman: What I meant by saying that you could worship different gods is that the establishment clause of the First Amendment authorizes people of different religions to come here and worship as they see fit. It is not preventing anyone, it is facilitating it. And the very fact that our legal system is based on the Judeo-Christian God, is a reality that cannot be dismissed from history. People who prevent you from hanging these kinds of things in courtrooms and public monuments are in fact not recognizing the basis of our legal system.

Moore: Right, exactly.

Klayman: What is likely to happen in this saga? How long have you been fighting this issue?

Moore: I have been fighting it for 10 years. I’ve been in 2 or 3 federal courts and state court and the Supreme Court of Alabama and we contend that it is clear in history and in the law that the acknowledgement of God is not prohibited by the First Amendment.