Ten Commandments monument returns to Montgomery

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The large, granite Ten Commandments monument that brought a national spotlight to Alabama nearly two decades ago is coming back to the state’s capital city.

The return of the monument isn’t expected to end with any court fight this time around, however, since it’s on private property.

Judge Roy Moore and his wife, Kayla, are placing the monument on the first floor of the Foundation for Moral Law, which he founded and she runs as its president.

Moore installed the monument in the Alabama Supreme Court building in 2001, a move that immediately sparked lawsuits and court orders for its removal. His refusal of a federal court order to remove the monument ultimately led to his first removal from the bench in 2003.

He sought and regained the chief justice seat in 2013 but was ultimately suspended for defying the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage in 2016. He resigned the seat a year later for an unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate.

Moore, who is seeking the Republican nomination for another run, announced the monument’s return through his campaign.

“One of the most important issues affecting our Country is a lack of morality," Moore said. “The Ten Commandments represent the ‘Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God,’ upon which our Nation began in 1776."

"Then we wonder why we have senseless murders like Aniah Blanchard or Camille McKinney or Miss Houston or any number, if you turn on the pages every day, crime is growing, senseless murders, deaths, cross the cut. What do you think we have political corruption? Why do we think in Iowa they can’t even find out who won? Ladies and gentlemen, we have corruption because we’ve forgotten morality.

Nick Fish, President of American Atheists, called Moore “an embarrassment to the state of Alabama and the American legal system," but added, “he has every right to put his gaudy monument anywhere he wants on his own private property.”

The Foundation for Moral Law, where the monument is located, can be found at One Dexter Avenue, just blocks from the Alabama Capitol and Supreme Court building in downtown Montgomery.

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