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Judge Moore isn't moved by threats of legal action. He contends the battle is a battle not simply for his right to acknowledge God, but for the right of the nation to acknowledge its Creator in government. It's a battle for every citizen's right to express that belief.

Do to him what you will, Judge Moore says, he's not taking down the Ten Commandments, and he won't stop the courtroom prayers. Write the negative editorials. Throw him in jail. Remove him from the bench. Take his retirement and health insurance.

"I've vowed I'm not going to stop opening with prayer. I've said I'm not going to take down the 10 Commandments.

"The freedom of conscience is the most valuable freedom we've got," he says. "Before this is over, I'm going to start speaking out. When they've got you down on the mat, it's time to start speaking out."

Roy Moore has made a habit of speaking out. His early life, and his military career, prepared him for the pummeling he takes for his candor.

The son of an itinerant construction worker, he grew up poor in Etowah County and lots of other places. "We lived in houses that did not have bathrooms," he says. "We washed in tubs. I wiped tables for my lunch at school. We wore hand-me-down clothes. I had to roll up the sleeves on the shirts because the sleeves were too short."

After high school, Moore won an appointment to West Point. "Daddy borrowed $300 to get me there."

He graduated in 1969, received airborne training at Fort Benning, Georgia, then shipped out to Germany with the 2nd Battalion, 51st Mechanized Infantry. From there he went to Vietnam, where he was a company commander and captain in the military police.

His military service over, Moore attended the University of Alabama's law school. In 1977, fresh out of graduate school, he was appointed Etowah County's first full-time deputy district attorney.

During this time he carved the plaque that would thrust him into this fight sixteen years later.

In 1982, Moore made his first run for judge in the 16th Judicial Circuit. He was defeated in a nasty election that ended with several judges presenting a complaint against Moore to the Alabama Supreme Court; they didn't like the assertions in his campaign ads that "money and political influence controlled many decisions in the court system."

The Supreme Court ruled that under the First Amendment Moore had the right to criticize the court system; but he was tired and disillusioned. So with $300 in his pocket, he headed to Galveston, Texas, to study full-contact karate with a world champion. For nine months, he worked as a construction supervisor on roofing crews repairing hurricane damaged apartment buildings and learned karate.

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