Source: The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60386-2003Jul1.html

On July 2, 2003 The Washington Post reported that "a federal appeals court yesterday declared the 2 1/2-ton Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court to be unconstitutional and compared its champion -- Chief Justice Roy S. Moore -- to the defiant, segregation-era Southern governors George C. Wallace and Ross Barnett... The unanimous decision by the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta upholds a lower-court ruling that has sparked demonstrations and fractious debate in Alabama... The appeals court repeatedly cited a speech Moore made the day after the monument was erected, when he said that it would remind all Alabama judges 'that, in order to establish justice, we must invoke the favor and guidance of Almighty God...' Such statements, the appeals panel said, make it clear that the monument promotes religion, even though Moore has also argued that it highlights the view of some historians that the Ten Commandments are the 'moral foundation of law.'"