November 4, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 8, 1424

WASHINGTON, Nov 3: The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected a long-disputed bid by Alabama’s top judge to display the Ten Commandments at the state judicial building.

Without comment, the high court refused to hear two appeals by Roy Moore, who was suspended after refusing to comply with a federal judge’s order in August to remove the granite monument because it violated constitutional church-state separation.

Moore, who was elected as Alabama’s chief justice in 2000, has been accused of violating judicial ethics. He is fighting his suspension, and a hearing has been set for Nov. 12.

With two tablets inscribed with the commandments that Jews and Christians believe were passed from God to Moses, the stone marker weighing 5,000 pounds was placed in the rotunda of the judicial building in Montgomery, Alabama, by Mr Moore and his followers in 2001.

The monument was removed on Aug 27 after eight associate justices of the Alabama Supreme Court decided to comply with the federal judge’s order. It has been locked in a closet since then.

Mr Moore has strong support from fundamentalist Christian groups for his championing of public displays of the Ten Commandments. As a lower court judge, he had a hand-carved plaque with the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.

Civil liberties groups have criticized him for imposing his personal religious views on others and using his office to promote the Christian faith.

FEDERAL COURTS: A number of civil liberties groups sued in 2001 on behalf of three Alabama lawyers who said they had been offended by the monument’s display.

A federal judge and then a US appeals court ruled the monument must be removed.

In one appeal, Moore’s lawyers told the Supreme Court the federal judge lacked jurisdiction to issue an injunction to Alabama’s chief justice requiring the monument’s removal.

They argued the injunction violated state sovereign immunity and amounted to “a blatant misuse of federal judicial power.”—Reuters