New Controversy as Commandments Case Goes to Anti-Commandments Judge

Some supporters of Alabama's Ten Commandments monument are none too happy that the very same federal judge who had it removed will decide a lawsuit calling for its return, but it could be their last hope.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson is scheduled Tuesday in Montgomery to consider a lawsuit filed on behalf of a pastor and a Christian radio host. He denied the plaintiffs' request for an emergency restraining order to bring monument back into public view.

The plaintiffs say the removal of the monument discriminates against and creates hostility toward Christians.

A federal judge in Mobile threw out a similar lawsuit Wednesday.

The plaintiffs' attorney Brian Chavez-Ochoa has a new argument, that for the state to forbid all religious expressions advocates a "nontheistic religion which is a religious belief in itself."

"Therein lies an establishment of religion and an act of discrimination against the Judeo-Christian faith." To include the monument alongside "empty space," signifying the "nothingness" of a "nontheistic" religion, puts the two belief systems on equal footing, he said.

More than a thousand protesters Thursday listened to former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and radio host the Rev. James Dobson denounce the turn of events.

"Without a moral heart, we shall not maintain a decent liberty," Keyes said to applause.

He denounced state officials, including Gov. Bob Riley and Attorney General Bill Pryor, both Republicans, for allowing the monument to be hidden from public view.

"For those who have made their reverence for law the enemy of their reverence for God," Keyes said, "I say to them: The Constitution does no such thing."

Dobson decried the "tyrannical" federal judicial system.

"It's not about the Ten Commandments. It's not even about that wonderful man Roy Moore. It's about everything else," said Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. "It is mostly about the unelected, unaccountable, arrogant, imperious judiciary that is determined to shove its wishes down our throats."

In neighboring Mississippi, Democrat Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and Republican gubernatorial nominee Haley Barbour said they'd take the monument if Alabama didn't want it. Musgrove said he would display it in the Capitol for a week, and Barbour said he wanted it at the governor's mansion.