Misc.: Roy Moore

Former Justice Roy Moore of Alabama became widely known around the nation in 2003 for his duel with higher authority about the presence of a granite Ten Commandments monument he had installed in the state courthouse when he was chief justice of that state's Supreme Court.

The Religious Right loved Moore for his stand on the matter; his opponents thought that either he failed to understand the religion clause of the First Amendment or that he was simply showboating for political purposes.

Certainly, Moore did at least have aspirations for higher office. After his defiance of orders to remove the 5,200-pound monument, Moore himself was removed as Chief Justice. He ran unsuccessfully for Alabama governor in 2006, losing in a landslide. Undeterred, he announced that he will run again for that office in 2010.

Moore is a West Point graduate and served as a military police officer. He also worked as a cowboy and as a professional kickboxer.

Moore's first big religious controversy was over a wood plaque showing the Ten Commandments; he hung the plaque behind his courtroom bench when he was a circuit judge.