Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was fired in 2003 for disobeying a federal order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a courthouse, said Monday he would be a candidate for governor of Alabama in 2006.
Moore, a fundamentalist Christian from northern Alabama who supports school prayer and opposes gay marriage, pledged to fight against higher taxes, tighten restrictions on illegal immigrants and improve education if elected.
“It is a crucial time to run for office when rights and liberties are being eroded, taxes climb, the education of our children declines and morality erodes while judges tell children they cannot pray,” Moore said at a rally in Gadsden, 63 miles northeast of Birmingham.
‘I believe that God is leading me’
“I believe that God is leading me to uphold the laws in Alabama and guide its policies,” Moore said in an interview after he announced his candidacy.
Moore, 58, is attempting to wrest the state’s top job from Bob Riley, a pro-business Republican who has seen his popularity drop since 2003, when his tax-restructuring plan was rejected by voters in the conservative state.
Riley is expected to announce his re-election bid later this week, setting up a showdown with Moore in the June 6 primary.
Elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000, Moore rose to national prominence in 2003 when he refused to remove a Ten Commandments display from a public area in the state judiciary building in Montgomery.
U.S. District Court Judge Myron Thompson had ruled that the 5,000-pound stone marker, installed by Moore and his supporters in 2001, violated the constitutional ban on government promotion of religion.
Moore contended the order was unlawful because it countermanded his constitutional obligation to acknowledge God.
Conflict sparked nationwide debate
His stand triggered a national debate over the role of religion in public life, prompting thousands of fundamentalist Christians to rally to his side and several state legislatures to consider legislation to protect Ten Commandments displays.
But civil libertarians accused Moore and his supporters of trying impose their religious beliefs on others.
The standoff ended when state officials intervened and removed the display, which now sits in a church in Gadsden.
Moore later was dismissed from his position on Alabama’s high court by a specially convened panel of mostly retired judges.