Glassroth v. Moore

Roy Moore (defendant), chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, had a two-and-one-half ton stone monument to the Ten Commandments installed in the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building. Moore’s stated purpose for erecting the monument was to remind the citizens of Alabama that the Judeo-Christian God is sovereign over the church and the state. Moore subsequently denied a request to install a monument displaying a historically significant speech in the rotunda. In justifying his decision, Moore stated that “the placement of a speech of any man alongside the revealed law of God would tend in consequence to diminish the very purpose of the Ten Commandments monument.” Stephen Glassroth (plaintiff) sued, arguing that the installation of the monument was a violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause. At trial, Moore testified that his purpose in installing the monument was to acknowledge “God’s overruling power over the affairs of man.” Moore also claimed that no Establishment Clause violation had been committed because, under his definition of religion, the Ten Commandments are secular and not religious. Moore defined religion as “the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it.” The Ten Commandments, Moore argued, did not fall under this definition but instead represented the moral foundation of the secular duties owed by individuals to society. The United States District Court held that the monument violated the Establishment Clause, and Moore appealed the decision.