He was elected Circuit Judge, Place Number One of the (Alabama) Sixteenth Judicial Circuit in Gadsden, Alabama, in 1992.
As Circuit Judge, Moore was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1995 for displaying a copy of the religious text the Ten Commandments in his court, and for opening court sessions with prayer. In at least one instance, Judge Moore asked a clergyman to lead the court's jury pool in prayer.
Leveraging the controversy, Moore ran for the elected post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama on a campaign based on "restoring the moral foundation of law". He was elected Chief Justice in November 2000. Alabama has one of the larger Christian majorities in the United States.
In the middle of the night of July 31, 2001, Moore installed a 5,300-pound granite monument to the Ten Commandments in the central rotunda of the Alabama state judicial building. The event was recorded and proceeds from the sale of the videotape were used to raise money for a charity he supported.
On Tuesday 30 October 2001, the ACLU of Alabama, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Southern Poverty Law Center were among groups which filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, asking that the monument be removed because it "sends a message to all who enter the State Judicial Building that the government encourages and endorses the practice of religion in general and Judeo-Christianity in particular". Evidence included testimony that lawyers of different religious beliefs had changed their work practices, including routinely avoiding visiting the court building, to avoid unavoidably passing by the monument, and testimony that it created a religious atmosphere which caused many of religious beliefs honoring the Ten Commandments to use the area as a place for prayer.
Moore argued that removing the monument would cause him to violate his oath of office, because, Moore claimed, the 10 Commandments are the moral basis of U.S. law.
Federal U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled the monument unconstitutional, as a prohibited endorsement of religion by the government, violating the principle of separation of church and state. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit, the decision (PDF) of which, in part, reads:
The Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court installed a two-and-onehalf ton monument to the Ten Commandments as the centerpiece of the rotunda in the Alabama State Judicial Building. He did so in order to remind all Alabama citizens of, among other things, his belief in the sovereignty of the Judeo-Christian God over both the state and the church. And he rejected a request to permit a monument displaying a historically significant speech in the same space on the grounds that "[t]he 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." …
After taking office he hung a hand-carved, wooden plaque depicting the Ten Commandments behind the bench in his courtroom and routinely invited clergy to lead prayer at jury organizing sessions. …
Every fourth grader in the state is brought on a tour of the building as part of a field trip to the state capital. No one who enters the building through the main entrance can miss the monument. It is in the rotunda, directly across from the main entrance, in front of a plate-glass window with a courtyard and waterfall behind it. After entering the building, members of the public must pass through the rotunda to access the public elevator or stairs, to enter the law library, or to use the public restrooms."
Moore answered yes to these questions:
Moore refused to remove it and allowed the time limit for removal to expire. Facing fines against the state of $5,000 per day, he was unanimously overruled by the eight other members of the Alabama Supreme Court, who had the monument removed within an extended time limit provided for that purpose. Because of the monument's weight, worries that it might break through the floor if taken outside intact and a desire to avoid unnecessary confrontation with protesters outside the building, the monument was put into storage inside. Moore was then suspended as Chief Justice (with full pay) pending a hearing of the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. The Court of the Judiciary is a panel of judges, lawyers and others appointed variously by judges, legal leaders and the governor and lieutenant governor.
On 3 November 2003 the federal Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal against the court order to remove the monument.
On Thursday 13 November 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed an unrepentant Moore from the office of Chief Justice because, according to Court of the Judiciary Presiding Judge William Thompson, "[t]he chief justice placed himself above the law."
In closing arguments, the Assistant Attorney General said Moore's defiance, left unchecked, "undercuts the entire workings of the judicial system" and "What message does that send to the public, to other litigants? The message it sends is: If you don't like a court order, you don't have to follow it".
As a legal matter, this case is one of the most significant examples of the period of why there is separation of church and state, a principle which, in part is a reflection of the religious persecution by the majority which cause the Pilgrim Fathers to leave England for the Americas. It has a judge who was found to have violated separation, ran for office in a state with a large majority of his religion, on a platform that he would continue to do so, then proceeded to do so when in office. Finally, the judicial system and its controls removed the head judge of a state from office to preserve the separation, in the face of the inevitable disagreement of the majority of the general population of the state, for the fundamental purpose of the separation is to prevent the majority from infringing the rights of the minorities.