Monument to a Higher Law.(Roy S. Moore, chief justice for the Alabama Supreme Court, on his decision to place a stone monument with the ten commandments carved on it in the court building)(Brief Article)

Remarks by Roy S. Moore, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, at the unveiling of a monument featuring the Ten Commandments in the Rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building, Montgomery, Alabama, August 1, 2001:

By the authority vested by the Constitution of the State of Alabama in the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and as the administrative head of the judicial system of the State of Alabama; and

By the authority vested by Alabama Code Section 41-10-275 in the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court as the Authorized Judicial System Representative of the Unified Judicial System of the State of Alabama: and

By the authority vested in the Chief Justice as such Authorized Representative under the lease of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama;

I am pleased to present this monument depicting the moral foundation of law, and hereby authorize it to be placed in the Rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

It is altogether fitting that this monument be placed in the Rotunda of the building housing the Alabama Supreme Court, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals, the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, the Alabama State Law Library, and of Alabama's Administrative Office of Courts. This monument serves to remind the Appellate Courts and judges of the Circuit and District Courts of this State and members of the bar who appear before them, as well as the people of Alabama who visit the Alabama Judicial Building, of the truth stated in the Preamble to the Alabama Constitution that in order to establish justice we must invoke "the favor and guidance of Almighty God."

"The institutions of our society are founded on the belief that there is an authority higher than the authority of the State; that there is a moral law which the State is powerless to alter; that the individual possesses rights, conferred by the Creator, which government must respect. The Declaration of Independence stated the now familiar theme: 'We hold these Truths to be self evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.'"