In Fact...

This article appeared in the April 1, 2002 edition of The Nation.

March 14, 2002

GAY RIGHTS IN ALABAMA

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who defied a 1994 federal court ruling prohibiting him from displaying the Ten Commandments in a state courtroom by placing a 5,280-pound granite replica of the tablets in the state's Supreme Court rotunda, is back in the news. Relying mainly on Blackstone's eighteenth-century text, Moore denied a lesbian mother custody of her child. Calling homosexuality an "inherent evil," he said the state "carries the power of the sword...to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle." Moore's attorney (judges are forbidden to comment on rulings) took issue with the persisting impression that the judge was calling for the execution of homosexuals. (Clip from John Earl)

THOUGHT-CRIMINALS BLOTTER

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