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American Morning
Alabama Attorney General: Monument Will be Removed
Aired August 26, 2003 - 08:06 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, ANCHOR: Scores of protestors are sitting vigil outside Alabama's judicial building as the state considers how to best execute a court order to remove the controversial monument to the Ten Commandments.
The man literally caught between this 5,000-pound piece of granite and a very hard place is attorney general Bill Pryor, and he joins us this morning from Montgomery, Alabama.
Thanks for joining us, sir. Glad to have you.
BILL PRYOR, ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: We know that police have put up barricades in front of the state's judicial building. What's the plan now to remove the statue? When will you plan to do it and how would you do it?
PRYOR: Well, I'm not going to announce exactly when and how we're going to do it, but we have a plan in place that's going to be done very soon.
The federal court has agreed to postpone its hearing on the matter until this Friday, and there's no doubt well before that Friday's status conference, the monument will have been moved.
O'BRIEN: Protestors have threatened a national boycott of any construction company that goes in and is part any kind of removal. Have you heard that? Have you seen construction companies basically say "I don't want to put a part of this, I don't want to risk any kind of backlash"?
PRYOR: I know that there was one difficulty, particularly, with the company that had originally moved the monument into the judicial building some two years ago, but we're going to get this done. We're going to have the monument moved.
The Supreme Court justices, all eight of them, the associate justices, have unanimously ordered the monument removed. Now the acting chief justice, Justice Houston, has entered another order to that effect and we're going to get it done.
O'BRIEN: The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., has a couple of copies itself of the Ten Commandments. So I'm curious to know personally, do you think, regardless of the law, that the statue should stay or go?
PRYOR: I think the Ten Commandments are appropriately displayed in courthouses. I've argued in the Supreme Court of the United States, and there are several depictions of the Ten Commandments there.
This has been a battle brewing in a lot of courthouses across the country. Just this year a federal court of appeals in Pennsylvania ruled that the Ten Commandments could be depicted in a courthouse there, and that's how I personally feel. I think that the Ten Commandments are appropriately depicted, but I have an obligation to uphold and enforce the law and follow court orders, even when I disagree with those orders, and I'm going to carry out that duty.
O'BRIEN: Chief Justice Moore has been suspended from office by the state's judicial inquiry commission. He's been charged with six ethics violations for defying a court order. If he's found guilty, explain to me what's the potential punishment? Could he be removed from the bench?
PRYOR: The body that will ultimately determine that is called the court of the judiciary. It's made up of nine judges and, yes, the ultimate remedy available to the court of the judiciary is removal from office.
My office will be responsible for prosecuting those charges and, really, any other comment about that would not be appropriate that the time.
O'BRIEN: Attorney general Bill Pryor, thanks for joining us, sir. Nice to have you.
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 August 26, 2003 - 08:06 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, ANCHOR: Scores of protestors are sitting vigil outside Alabama's judicial building as the state considers how to best execute a court order to remove the controversial monument to the Ten Commandments.
The man literally caught between this 5,000-pound piece of granite and a very hard place is attorney general Bill Pryor, and he joins us this morning from Montgomery, Alabama.
Thanks for joining us, sir. Glad to have you.
BILL PRYOR, ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: We know that police have put up barricades in front of the state's judicial building. What's the plan now to remove the statue? When will you plan to do it and how would you do it?
PRYOR: Well, I'm not going to announce exactly when and how we're going to do it, but we have a plan in place that's going to be done very soon.
The federal court has agreed to postpone its hearing on the matter until this Friday, and there's no doubt well before that Friday's status conference, the monument will have been moved.
O'BRIEN: Protestors have threatened a national boycott of any construction company that goes in and is part any kind of removal. Have you heard that? Have you seen construction companies basically say "I don't want to put a part of this, I don't want to risk any kind of backlash"?
PRYOR: I know that there was one difficulty, particularly, with the company that had originally moved the monument into the judicial building some two years ago, but we're going to get this done. We're going to have the monument moved.
The Supreme Court justices, all eight of them, the associate justices, have unanimously ordered the monument removed. Now the acting chief justice, Justice Houston, has entered another order to that effect and we're going to get it done.
O'BRIEN: The Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., has a couple of copies itself of the Ten Commandments. So I'm curious to know personally, do you think, regardless of the law, that the statue should stay or go?
PRYOR: I think the Ten Commandments are appropriately displayed in courthouses. I've argued in the Supreme Court of the United States, and there are several depictions of the Ten Commandments there.
This has been a battle brewing in a lot of courthouses across the country. Just this year a federal court of appeals in Pennsylvania ruled that the Ten Commandments could be depicted in a courthouse there, and that's how I personally feel. I think that the Ten Commandments are appropriately depicted, but I have an obligation to uphold and enforce the law and follow court orders, even when I disagree with those orders, and I'm going to carry out that duty.
O'BRIEN: Chief Justice Moore has been suspended from office by the state's judicial inquiry commission. He's been charged with six ethics violations for defying a court order. If he's found guilty, explain to me what's the potential punishment? Could he be removed from the bench?
PRYOR: The body that will ultimately determine that is called the court of the judiciary. It's made up of nine judges and, yes, the ultimate remedy available to the court of the judiciary is removal from office.
My office will be responsible for prosecuting those charges and, really, any other comment about that would not be appropriate that the time.
O'BRIEN: Attorney general Bill Pryor, thanks for joining us, sir. Nice to have you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
