MONTGOMERY, Ala., Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Eight associate justices of the Alabama Supreme Court overruled Chief Justice Roy Moore Thursday, ordering removal of a controversial religious monument.
Moore placed the two-ton Ten Commandments monument in the Alabama Judicial Building's rotunda two years ago. But U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson this week ruled the granite monument violates the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.
Moore appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court but the high court refused to block the removal order.
Earlier Thursday, the Alabama associate justices -- in an apparent attempt to comply with the federal ruling -- ordered partitions erected around the monument. But just hours later, Moore removed the partitions.
The Montgomery Independent said it was then the associate justices overruled Moore, saying the federal order must be obeyed, regardless of whether they agreed with it.
Thompson will decide Friday whether to hold Moore in contempt. The newspaper noted that had the justices not acted, Thompson could have held the entire state Supreme Court in contempt.
The Independent said the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission will consider a complaint Friday that Moore has violated the state's Canons of Judicial Ethics by defying a federal court order.
