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In fact, some are doing precisely the opposite. "Many side issues have divided the Christian community on this case, so we must remember that the true enemy here is the judicial tyranny that is forcing a secular religion on our public life and discourse," Concerned Women for America Vice President Michael Schwartz said in a press release. "That is the battle we need to focus on."

Religious conservatives, however, are voicing little doubt over Moore's commitments. "We love you, we respect you," Dobson told him. "The word drifted back in here to Focus on the Family this week that I was backing away from you. I gotta tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. I will stand shoulder to shoulder with you as long as I have breath in my body. … You're right. God knows it."

The decision:

• Panel removes Alabama's 'Ten Commandments judge' | By defying a federal district court order to remove the 5,300-pound monument from public display, "the chief justice placed himself above the law," said Judge William Thompson (Los Angeles Times)
  
  
• Alabama judge is removed | Moore installed monument to Commandments (The Washington Post)
  
  
• Ten Commandments justice ousted | The ruling, which was unanimous, was the harshest punishment possible for the judge (The Washington Times)
  
  
• Alabama panel ousts judge over Ten Commandments monument | Alabama's chief justice, Roy S. Moore, has become a hero of the religious right for defying orders to remove the monument he placed in the state judicial building lobby (The New York Times)
  
  
• Moore kicked off state's high court | 'No man … is so high as to be about the law,' court rules (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
  
  

Reaction:

• Moore backers unhappy; political backlash forecast | In a state where a majority of voters consider themselves evangelical Christians, the removal of Chief Justice Roy Moore could have a political effect equivalent to hitting a hornet's nest with a stick (The Birmingham News, Ala.)
  
  
• Many believe Moore will seek elected office again | Legal issues abound in wake of ouster; state at 'crossroads' (The Huntsville Times, Ala.)
  
  
• Opinions in community differ about judge's ouster | Of a group of a dozen or so people the TimesDaily randomly polled, opinions strongly sided with Moore (Times Daily, Gadsden, Ala.)
  
  
• Area residents react to Moore's removal from office | Most supported Moore's stand on keeping religion and the Ten Commandments in the courthouse, while also saying he is not above the law simply because he is a judge (Daily Home, Talladega, Ala.)
  
  
• Pryor says decision right | In five minutes of gripping courtroom tension that ended two years of legal drama, a nine-member judicial panel on Thursday ousted Judge Roy Moore from the highest judicial office in the state (Montgomery Advertiser, Ala.)
  
  
• Monument sculptor to sell mini replicas for Moore's defense | Thousands, perhaps millions of 11-inch bronze duplicates of former Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument will be produced and sold to raise money for his legal defense fund (The Huntsville Times, Ala.)
  
  
• Media again turns eye on Montgomery (Montgomery Advertiser, Ala.)
  
  

What's next:

• Moore pledges to continue crusade | Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore said Thursday he won't disappear from the public spotlight after his ouster from office, but he is not sure if he will try to get his job back (back (Montgomery Advertiser, Ala.)
  
  

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November (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47