Roy Moore
Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947) is an American judge, Republican politician, and the current Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. In 2003, during Moore's first term as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, he refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments (which he had commissioned) from the Alabama Judicial Building despite orders to do so from a federal judge. On November 13, 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed Moore from his post as Chief Justice. In the years preceding his first election to the state Supreme Court, Moore successfully resisted attempts to have a display of the Ten Commandments removed from the courtroom. The controversy around Moore generated national attention. Moore's supporters regard his stand as a defense of "judicial rights" and the Constitution of Alabama. Moore contended that federal judges who ruled against his actions consider "obedience of a court order superior to all other concerns, even the suppression of belief in the sovereignty of God." Moore sought the Republican nomination for the governorship of Alabama in 2006, but lost to incumbent Bob Riley in the June primary by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. On June 1, 2009 he announced his campaign for the 2010 election for governor. Moore placed fourth in the Republican primary held on June 1, 2010, having received only 19 percent of the vote. On April 18, 2011, Moore announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to run in the Republican presidential primaries in 2012. When that campaign failed to gain traction, he began to draw speculation in the media as being a potential Constitution Party presidential contender. In November 2011, Moore withdrew his exploratory committee and ended all speculation of a presidential candidacy when he instead announced that he would in 2012 seek his former post of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. On November 6, 2012, Moore won election back to the office of Alabama Chief Justice, defeating replacement Democratic candidate Bob Vance.