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American Morning
Interview With Roy Moore
Aired November 14, 2003 - 07:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Roy Moore is now Alabama's former chief justice. He's out of a job this morning, but he is unrepentant about the stand that he took that cost him his job. Moore's refusal to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse led to his removal from the bench yesterday by a judicial ethics panel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM THOMPSON, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT: All of the members of this court, after serious consideration of the evidence and testimony presented at this trial, find by clear and convincing evidence that Roy S. Moore, while in his role of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, did willfully and publicly defy a federal court order directed to him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Roy Moore joins us from Birmingham this morning.
Nice to see you, Mr. Moore.
Thanks for joining us.
ROY MOORE, FORMER ALABAMA CHIEF JUSTICE: Good morning, Soledad.
It's nice to be with you.
O'BRIEN: Well, thank you.
How are you doing today in the wake of this ruling?
MOORE: Well, of course, it was a blow to myself and my family to be out of a job after so many years in the judiciary. And, of course, I'll just have to adjust to it.
O'BRIEN: The argument at the end of the day, sir, was over whether the state, your position was, was over whether the state can acknowledge god.
MOORE: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: The ethics committee seemed to say no, actually, the argument is over whether a justice can decide on his own to overrule the law.
MOORE: Well, Soledad, let me clarify that by reading just a question from the transcript that was in the case. The attorney general asked me, and I quote, said, "Mr. Chief Justice, and your understanding is that the federal court ordered you that you could not acknowledge god? Isn't that right?"
I said, "Yes."
"And if you resume your duties as chief justice after this proceeding, you will continue to acknowledge god, as you have testified you would today?"
I said, "That's right."
He said, "No matter what any other official says?"
And I said, "Absolutely."
So this issue is about whether or not we can acknowledge god. And they did take into consideration that I said I would continue to acknowledge god if I resume my duties.
O'BRIEN: My understanding...
MOORE: So that's what the issue is about.
O'BRIEN: Oh, forgive me for interrupting you.
MOORE: Sure. Sure.
O'BRIEN: My understanding of that, though, was acknowledge god with this massive monument. So my question to you would be then if someone said, you know what, instead of the Ten Commandments, what I'd like to see is a 5,000 pound statue to the Quran side by side to your Ten Commandments monument, would you be fine with that? That would be them acknowledging god in their own way?
MOORE: Well, the chief justice, of course, is the lessee of the building and the chief administrative officer of the justice system. The state has the right to determine how to administrator that justice system.
Now, your question might be asked, if there was another justice that took over, would that be right? Well, I would say this, it would not reflect the fundamental principles of this country. But the question really is would it be adverse to the constitution? Would it violate the rule of law contained in the constitutional first amendment, which is Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And I submit that it would not.
It would not be a law. It would not be a religion.
O'BRIEN: So then you're -- I'm sorry. So since I'm not a lawyer and all those things are sort of, statutes are sort of going over my head there...
MOORE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: ... at the end of the day, you'd be fine with that...
MOORE: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: ... then, a 5,000 pound Quran rolled into the...
MOORE: When you...
O'BRIEN: If the chief justice felt that he was comfortable with that, you'd say fine, that's not adverse to the constitution?
MOORE: When you say -- I would say it would not be adverse to the constitution. It would displease me. It would not reflect what I believe the country is founded upon. But it would not be unconstitutional because it's not an establishment of religion. It's not a law and it's not Congress making such.
O'BRIEN: I think...
MOORE: Yes, ma'am?
O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, even though you've lost your job, do you feel like you've gained in popularity? Are you going to leverage all of this into potentially a run for office?
MOORE: Well, it's certainly not an attempt to leverage anything into popularity and I don't judge my conduct by popularity, I judge it by my oath to the constitution and the constitution of Alabama and the constitution of the United States. And so if it's popular, then so be it. And if it's unpopular, then I still do my duty.
O'BRIEN: Would you like to run for office? Do you see yourself doing that soon? You don't, you know, you're out, you don't have a job now. You've got a little time on your hands.
MOORE: Well, I do have time. Soledad, I'll be talking about this issue, the first amendment restriction of the federal jurisdiction under Article 3 of the constitution. And should I run for office in the future, it may be a possibility. But I have not considered that at this time.
O'BRIEN: Roy Moore, it's nice to have you.
Thanks...
MOORE: I'm rather disillusioned with politics right now.
O'BRIEN: Well, I can imagine that.
MOORE: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Roy Moore, nice to see you.
MOORE: Yes, thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for joining us this morning to talk about this.
Appreciate it.
MOORE: Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired November 14, 2003 - 07:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Roy Moore is now Alabama's former chief justice. He's out of a job this morning, but he is unrepentant about the stand that he took that cost him his job. Moore's refusal to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse led to his removal from the bench yesterday by a judicial ethics panel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM THOMPSON, ALABAMA SUPREME COURT: All of the members of this court, after serious consideration of the evidence and testimony presented at this trial, find by clear and convincing evidence that Roy S. Moore, while in his role of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, did willfully and publicly defy a federal court order directed to him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: Roy Moore joins us from Birmingham this morning.
Nice to see you, Mr. Moore.
Thanks for joining us.
ROY MOORE, FORMER ALABAMA CHIEF JUSTICE: Good morning, Soledad.
It's nice to be with you.
O'BRIEN: Well, thank you.
How are you doing today in the wake of this ruling?
MOORE: Well, of course, it was a blow to myself and my family to be out of a job after so many years in the judiciary. And, of course, I'll just have to adjust to it.
O'BRIEN: The argument at the end of the day, sir, was over whether the state, your position was, was over whether the state can acknowledge god.
MOORE: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: The ethics committee seemed to say no, actually, the argument is over whether a justice can decide on his own to overrule the law.
MOORE: Well, Soledad, let me clarify that by reading just a question from the transcript that was in the case. The attorney general asked me, and I quote, said, "Mr. Chief Justice, and your understanding is that the federal court ordered you that you could not acknowledge god? Isn't that right?"
I said, "Yes."
"And if you resume your duties as chief justice after this proceeding, you will continue to acknowledge god, as you have testified you would today?"
I said, "That's right."
He said, "No matter what any other official says?"
And I said, "Absolutely."
So this issue is about whether or not we can acknowledge god. And they did take into consideration that I said I would continue to acknowledge god if I resume my duties.
O'BRIEN: My understanding...
MOORE: So that's what the issue is about.
O'BRIEN: Oh, forgive me for interrupting you.
MOORE: Sure. Sure.
O'BRIEN: My understanding of that, though, was acknowledge god with this massive monument. So my question to you would be then if someone said, you know what, instead of the Ten Commandments, what I'd like to see is a 5,000 pound statue to the Quran side by side to your Ten Commandments monument, would you be fine with that? That would be them acknowledging god in their own way?
MOORE: Well, the chief justice, of course, is the lessee of the building and the chief administrative officer of the justice system. The state has the right to determine how to administrator that justice system.
Now, your question might be asked, if there was another justice that took over, would that be right? Well, I would say this, it would not reflect the fundamental principles of this country. But the question really is would it be adverse to the constitution? Would it violate the rule of law contained in the constitutional first amendment, which is Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And I submit that it would not.
It would not be a law. It would not be a religion.
O'BRIEN: So then you're -- I'm sorry. So since I'm not a lawyer and all those things are sort of, statutes are sort of going over my head there...
MOORE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: ... at the end of the day, you'd be fine with that...
MOORE: Yes, ma'am.
O'BRIEN: ... then, a 5,000 pound Quran rolled into the...
MOORE: When you...
O'BRIEN: If the chief justice felt that he was comfortable with that, you'd say fine, that's not adverse to the constitution?
MOORE: When you say -- I would say it would not be adverse to the constitution. It would displease me. It would not reflect what I believe the country is founded upon. But it would not be unconstitutional because it's not an establishment of religion. It's not a law and it's not Congress making such.
O'BRIEN: I think...
MOORE: Yes, ma'am?
O'BRIEN: At the end of the day, even though you've lost your job, do you feel like you've gained in popularity? Are you going to leverage all of this into potentially a run for office?
MOORE: Well, it's certainly not an attempt to leverage anything into popularity and I don't judge my conduct by popularity, I judge it by my oath to the constitution and the constitution of Alabama and the constitution of the United States. And so if it's popular, then so be it. And if it's unpopular, then I still do my duty.
O'BRIEN: Would you like to run for office? Do you see yourself doing that soon? You don't, you know, you're out, you don't have a job now. You've got a little time on your hands.
MOORE: Well, I do have time. Soledad, I'll be talking about this issue, the first amendment restriction of the federal jurisdiction under Article 3 of the constitution. And should I run for office in the future, it may be a possibility. But I have not considered that at this time.
O'BRIEN: Roy Moore, it's nice to have you.
Thanks...
MOORE: I'm rather disillusioned with politics right now.
O'BRIEN: Well, I can imagine that.
MOORE: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Roy Moore, nice to see you.
MOORE: Yes, thank you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for joining us this morning to talk about this.
Appreciate it.
MOORE: Yes, ma'am.
Thank you, Soledad.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
