Time: Sun Apr 13 06:45:18 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id FAA25096; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 05:49:38 -0700 (MST) id IAA28387; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 08:47:13 -0400 (EDT) id IAA28372; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 08:47:10 -0400 (EDT) id AA05917; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 08:47:09 -0400 by usr01.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id FAA29241; Sun, 13 Apr 1997 05:47:01 -0700 (MST) Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 06:38:50 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SNET: Thousands Rally Against Alabama Supreme Court -> SearchNet's SNETNEWS Mailing List [This text is formatted in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.] Thousands Rally Against Supreme Court in Alabama April 13, 1997 1:58 a.m. EST (0658 GMT) MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- Thousands of people, including two of Alabama's highest elected officials, protested the separation of church and state at the state Capitol Saturday, condemning the Supreme Court for keeping religion out of public schools, courtrooms and other government venues. At a three-hour rally, Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed, Alabama Gov. Fob James and state Attorney General Bill Pryor pledged their support for a state judge who has come under fire in recent months for praying in court and displaying the 10 Commandments on the wall behind his bench. While the rally's invective was aimed mainly at the Supreme Court and the American Civil Liberties Union, its rhetoric at times veered into a condemnation of legal abortion and gay people. "The greatest domestic need in the American political system today is a U.S. president who would refuse to enforce U.S. Supreme Court decisions based on judicial fraud ... and a U.S. Congress to impeach judges for subverting the Constitution," James told the cheering crowd, estimated by police at between 20,000 and 25,000 people. The "Save the Commandments" rally was sponsored by 37 national and state religious organizations as a means of generating support for Etowah County Circuit Judge Roy Moore, who has been battling with the ACLU for two years. The ACLU sued in federal court in 1995 to stop Moore from opening his court with prayer and to make him remove a hand-carved tablet bearing the 10 Commandments from his Anniston courtroom, 150 miles away. The federal suit was thrown out on a technicality, but a Montgomery County circuit judge later decided against Moore in two separate rulings. Both rulings have since been stayed by the Alabama Supreme Court pending appeals by the state. "You do not stand alone," declared Reed, whose Christian Coalition claims 2.5 million members nationwide. "As long as there's breath in our bodies, the 10 Commandments will never come down from this courtroom." Pryor, who argued Moore's case while still a deputy attorney general, condemned the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion, telling his audience that he became a lawyer to fight the ACLU. "God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time and this place for all Christians ... to save our country and save our courts," he announced. One member of the crowd waved a homemade placard inviting renowned civil rights attorney Morris Dees, the state ACLU president and newly out-of-the-closet television actress Ellen Degeneres to "Burn In Hell." # # # ======================================================================== Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S. : Counselor at Law, federal witness email: [address in tool bar] : Eudora Pro 3.0.1 on Intel 586 CPU web site: http://www.supremelaw.com : library & law school registration ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this ======================================================================== -> Send "subscribe snetnews " to majordomo@world.std.com -> Posted by: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
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