Alabama Ten Commandments judge running for governor

Roy Moore enters 2010 governor's race


MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama judge known for refusing to move a granite monument of the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the state's judicial building is again running for governor, with his message Monday going beyond his longstanding call for the government to acknowledge God.
Ousted Chief Justice Roy Moore's kickoff speech focused on economics, social issues and criticism of the federal government.
"While an ever-increasing national government deficit devalues our dollar and plunges us into a recession, federal power intrudes into private business, undermining our free enterprise system upon which we've always been based," said Moore, who is running as a Republican.
Moore became known as Alabama's Ten Commandments judge when he was presided over circuit court in Gadsden in 1997-1998 and waged a legal battle to display a homemade plaque of the religious laws in his courtroom.
The attention over his plaque helped him win the race for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2000. As head of the state judicial system, he placed a granite monument of the Ten Commandments in the lobby of the state judicial building. A federal judge ordered him to remove it, but he refused, claiming a right to acknowledge God.
That decision caused the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to kick Moore out of office in 2003.
Religion was an important part of the 62-year-old's message during his announcement.
"Out of Washington comes a dangerous new message that we are not a Christian nation. Indeed, I refute that," Moore said as about 150 supporters cheered.
Moore ran for governor in 2006, but lost the Republican primary by a 2-to-1 margin to incumbent Bob Riley. Riley can't run again in 2010, and a large field is lining up for the GOP primary in June 2010.