The Ten Commandments

I like the Ten Commandments. I mean I've lobbied unsuccessfully to get "Thou Shalt Not Tailgate" added as an eleventh commandment, but despite my disappoint at having said petition rejected, I think the Ten Commandments are great. And I think if we all followed them, the world would be a better place.

That said Alabama Chief Justice Ray S. Moore's decision to leave his statue of the Ten Commandments up in the face of a court order requiring him to remove them is a crime. As a justice he should know that his first duty as a judge is to uphold the law; the law as interpreted by the US District Judge Myron H. Thompson requires Moore to remove the statue. Perhaps, based on his interpretation of scripture, he is not religiously permitted to obey. Fine and dandy. Than he should not be sitting in a bench. When you become an officer of the court, you take upon yourself the requirement to uphold the law. Part of that inevitably includes upholding laws you personally find distasteful. But the law has to come first, above your personal concerns, however noble those personal concerns might be.

However, there is also the possibility that Justice Moore's personal concerns may not be entirely spiritual. Certainly he might have calculated how these actions might play among his consituents. He did, after all, arrange for a camera crew, employed by Coral Ridge Ministries, to be on hand as the statue was installed (according to the Washington Post). And you can be sure that Justice Moore is not entirely dissatisfied at the national exposure he's received. You might want to watch to see if Moore pops up on a ballot sometime soon.