Honorable Roy Moore Coming to Speak
Honorable Roy Moore coming to Oskaloosa
I recently sat down with the Reverend Bill Tvedt on the subject of Roy Moore coming to Oskaloosa to speak.
Tvedt informed me that he is a Board Member of Peacemakers Institute. The Peacemakers Institute is a non-profit 501 C4 non-religious group from Sioux City, Iowa. The William Penn College Republicans are also working with the group to bring the event to the PAC Center on the campus of William Penn University.
Tvedt went on to say about Roy Moore, “he completely sacrificed a career, a very prestigious career for a very deep felt principle, that we could have freedom of expression as Christians. And be able to have the Ten Commandments and to repudiate and rebuff the whole idea of separation of church and state cause it’s an absolute fallacy. Tvedt explained that “It’s a gross perversion of the original intent, the original intent was to keep the government out of the church, not the churches influence away from the government.” “The reason why we first came to America was to evade coercive and encroaching government.” “It was written to the Danbury Bible Mission Society by Jefferson in a letter was where this phrase was coined,” ”make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” “he was not talking about getting the church out of the government, he was talking about getting the government out of the church.” “This is an issue that Judge Roy Moore holds dearly and he’s very disturbed by the judicial activism, he’s very disturbed by the things that are going on in our Nation.” Tvedt said.
They invite you to a special event featuring the Honorable Roy S. Moore. Chief Justice Moore will be addressing the controversial subjects of judicial activism and the threat against the people’s right to retain or remove our judges. This is a subject that he is personally familiar with, and believes he can provide more information to the public on the subject.
Judge Roy Moore is the the Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice that refused to take down Ten Commandments for public buildings back in 2003. He was removed by Alabama’s judicial ethics panel from office for defying a Federal Judges order to remove the Ten Commandments monument from the state Supreme Court building. In a one day trial the nine-member Court of the Judiciary, a panel of judges, lawyers and non-lawyers chose to remove him versus a reprimand or even to continued his suspension or clear him. They stated Moore put himself above the law by “willfully and publicly” flouting the order to remove the 2.6-ton monument from the state judicial building’s rotunda in August.
“God has chosen this time and this place so we can save our country and save our courts for our children,” Moore said. He stated this after reading comments by a former Alabama Attorney General, Bill Pryor had stated in 1997 that defended the display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom when a state circuit court judge.
At the time of this event, Pryor was being nominated to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, by then President Bush. Senate Democrats were trying to block the nomination by filibuster. The idea that politics is part of the judicial process gains credibility by the partisan ways in which judges are appointed, as evidenced by nearly every major appointment even today, not just the one used as the example in this article.
Pryor, a Republican, has said he believes the Ten Commandments display was constitutional, but he said federal court orders must be obeyed. “At the end of the day, when the courts resolve those controversies, we respect their decision,” he said. “That does not mean that we always agree with their decision.”
The Judge who placed the order for removal. U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on September 17, 1980. The Senate confirmed him September 26, 1980 receiving his commission September 29, 1980. Judge Thompson ruled the granite carving was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion. At that point Judge Moore refused to obey the order, but was overruled by his eight colleagues on the state Supreme Court. On November 3, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Moore’s appeal of Thompson’s ruling.
After the ruling Moore had stated he was not surprised by the decision and he was being removed from office because he “acknowledged God”.
At the time, Only one in five Americans approved of the federal court order to remove the monument, according to a poll from CNN-USA Today-Gallup conducted at the time. The poll on the subject found 77 percent of the 1,009 Americans interviewed disapproved of Thompson’s order to remove the monument.
His critic’s were not yet satisfied with his removal and wanted to have him disbarred as well. Richard Cohen, of the Southern Poverty Law Center and one of their lawyers that sued Moore over the monument had stated the organization would work to have Moore disbarred.
This event will be taking place before the the November retention election of 3 Iowa Supreme Court Justices. The Justices are facing opposition to their retention by people such as Bob Vander Plaats who have been campaigning for removal of justices during the retention vote over dissatisfaction on the Supreme Courts ruling over gay marriage. The group Iowa For Freedom has been a driving force behind the debate statewide on what is perceived by them as judicial tyranny.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has come out in defense of the Iowa Supreme Court. The conservative right has made a habit of labeling judges who hand down verdicts with which they disagree “judicial activists,” while remaining silent on controversial decisions that align with conservative ideology. Among the weapons conservatives have brought to bear on judges labeled “activists”–especially judges who have found that anti-gay laws are unconstitutional–have been threats of impeachment.
As is evident by reading this article, there is much controversy in the subject and should prove to be very informative.
This event will be held Saturday, October 16 at 7:00 p.m. at the William Penn PAC Center in Oskaloosa. Visit their Facebook page for more information.
The following give’s more information on the Honorable Roy Moore.
Captain Roy Moore served in the U.S. Army as a company commander with the Military Police Corp in Vietnam. During his professional career, he became the first full-time Deputy District Attorney in Etowah County and served in this position from 1977 until 1982. In 1984, Moore undertook private practice of law in Gadsden. He became a judge of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama in 1992 and served until his election as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000.
Chief Justice Moore has authored “So Help Me God,” as well as numerous publications, including “Religion in the Public Square,” published by Cumberland Law Review, Cumberland School of Law, Volume 29, No. 2, 1998-1999, “Putting God Back in the Public Square,” Imprimis, Hillsdale College, Volume 28, No. 8, August 1999, “Courts Out of Control: Understanding the Rule of Law in America,” Liberty Forum, Institute on the Constitution, Volume 2, Issue 2, Spring 2006 and “Our Legal Heritage.” In addition, Judge Moore writes a weekly Wednesday column, “Our Moral Foundation.”
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