c. 1997 Religion News Service

MONTGOMERY, Ala. _ Gov. Fob James say he is ready to take on the federal government if the federal courts tell a state judge he can’t keep a wooden replica of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.

If the federal courts remove the replica from the courtroom of Circuit Judge Roy Moore of Gadsden, Ala., they’ll have to”run over the state troopers and the National Guard,”James told a group of Southern Baptist leaders on Wednesday (Feb. 5).

Later, in an interview in his Capitol office, James said his objective would be to force the president and Congress to take a stand on the issue, which is now working its way through state courts.

Moore has been opening his court with prayer by a Protestant minister, and has posted a hand-carved replica of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. The American Civil Liberties Union has sued to eliminate the prayer and to remove the commandments.

Judge Charles Price of Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled Nov. 22 that Moore must stop the prayers, but that he could keep the commandments, along with other historical items, on his courtroom walls.

The ACLU has asked Price to reconsider, so Price visited Moore’s courtroom Friday (Feb. 7), looked at the plaque from several different angles and said he will rule Monday on whether it may stay or must come down.

Moore, meanwhile, has said he will not stop the prayers. The next session of his court is Feb. 24.

Moore’s attorneys are appealing to the Alabama Supreme Court, and the case later could go to federal court. “I think his (James) comments are contrary to his oath of office,”said Robert Segall, attorney for the ACLU of Alabama.”I think they’re un-American. I think he is advocating a dictatorship and I would hope he would rethink his un-American, unconstitutional position. I think it’s a disgrace to the state and a disgrace to the United States to have those kind of comments.” James pledged his”maximum effort”to keep the Ten Commandments in the courtroom should the case reach the federal courts and should they rule against Moore. “This would force the executive branch, and later the legislative branch, into addressing the issue,”James said in the interview.

Just as indignation over violation of minority rights forced Congress to pass sweeping civil rights legislation during the 1960s, so indignation over the removal of religion from public life could force Congress to act on issues such as prayer in the schools and the Ten Commandments in court, the governor said.

James believes Americans acquiesced too readily in the Supreme Court’s 1962 and 1963 decisions that ruled state-mandated school prayers to be in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. “We complained about it,”he told reporters after his prayer-lunch address,”but there was no real action taken, and I would not want to see the same mistakes made again.” James won some support at the congressional level from Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., who has been vocal about the need for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to protect religious rights.”My heart and prayers are with you, to assure that our rights to pray and to acknowledge our religious heritage are not taken away when we step onto public property,”Istook wrote James in a Feb. 6 letter.”I commend you and so many other Alabamans for having the courage of your convictions.” Addressing the Baptist group, James accused the federal government of having”a demonstrated hostility toward God.””It is not often in our lifetime that you can heed a lesson of history,”James said,”but I say to my fellow Alabamians at this moment, the only way those Ten Commandments and that prayer will be stripped from that court is with the force of arms. Make no mistake about that statement.” During the 1963 showdown over the integration of the University of Alabama, President Kennedy did take over the Alabama National Guard to maintain order on the Tuscaloosa campus and keep it out of Gov. George Wallace’s control.

It was during this showdown that Wallace stood in a doorway to block federal agents from escorting black students to register at the university. “Shades of George Wallace standing in the schoolhouse door,”said Joseph Conn, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious-liberty group based in Washington.”I can’t believe the governor is seriously considering that.”

DEA END OWENS-REILLY