May 20, 2013
Attorney General Bill Pryor said in a brief filed with the Alabama Supreme Court that the decision of a legal panel to remove former Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore from office was correct and not based on Moore's Christian beliefs.
The brief was filed in response to Moore's appeal of the Nov. 13 decision by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to remove him from office because he refused to obey a federal judge's order to move a 5300 pound Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.
Moore argued in earlier legal briefs that he was removed from office because he failed a "religious test" in which he had to choose between his job and his allegiance to God.
The 71-page brief from the attorney general's office said as chief justice Moore was free to believe however he pleased.
Pryor also argued in the brief that the Court of the Judiciary did not punish Moore for his religious beliefs.
