Time: Sun Apr 13 06:45:20 1997
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Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 06:41:49 -0700
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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: Thousands Rally Against Alabama Supreme Court

[This text is formatted in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]


Thousands Rally Against Supreme Court in Alabama
April 13, 1997
1:58 a.m. EST (0658 GMT)


MONTGOMERY, Alabama  -- Thousands  of people,  including  two  of
Alabama's highest  elected officials, protested the separation of
church and  state at  the state  Capitol Saturday, condemning the
Supreme  Court  for  keeping  religion  out  of  public  schools,
courtrooms and other government venues.

At a  three-hour rally,  Christian Coalition  leader Ralph  Reed,
Alabama Gov.  Fob James  and state  Attorney General  Bill  Pryor
pledged their  support for  a state judge who has come under fire
in recent  months for  praying in  court and  displaying  the  10
Commandments on the wall behind his bench.

While the rally's invective was aimed mainly at the Supreme Court
and the  American Civil  Liberties Union,  its rhetoric  at times
veered into a condemnation of legal abortion and gay people.

"The greatest  domestic need  in the  American  political  system
today is  a U.S.  president who  would  refuse  to  enforce  U.S.
Supreme Court  decisions based  on judicial  fraud ... and a U.S.
Congress to  impeach judges  for  subverting  the  Constitution,"
James told  the cheering  crowd, estimated  by police  at between
20,000 and 25,000 people.

The "Save  the Commandments"  rally was  sponsored by 37 national
and state  religious  organizations  as  a  means  of  generating
support for  Etowah County  Circuit Judge Roy Moore, who has been
battling with the ACLU for two years.

The ACLU sued in federal court in 1995 to stop Moore from opening
his court with prayer and to make him remove a hand-carved tablet
bearing the  10 Commandments  from his  Anniston  courtroom,  150
miles away.

The federal  suit  was  thrown  out  on  a  technicality,  but  a
Montgomery County  circuit judge  later decided  against Moore in
two separate rulings.  Both rulings have since been stayed by the
Alabama Supreme Court pending appeals by the state.

"You  do   not  stand  alone,"  declared  Reed,  whose  Christian
Coalition claims  2.5 million  members nationwide.   "As  long as
there's breath in our bodies, the 10 Commandments will never come
down from this courtroom."

Pryor, who  argued Moore's  case while  still a  deputy  attorney
general, condemned  the 1973  Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision
that legalized  abortion, telling  his audience  that he became a
lawyer to fight the ACLU.

"God has chosen, through his son Jesus Christ, this time and this
place for  all Christians  ... to  save our  country and save our
courts," he announced.

One member  of  the  crowd  waved  a  homemade  placard  inviting
renowned civil  rights  attorney  Morris  Dees,  the  state  ACLU
president and  newly out-of-the-closet  television actress  Ellen
Degeneres to "Burn In Hell."


                             #  #  #


========================================================================
Paul Andrew, Mitchell, B.A., M.S.    : Counselor at Law, federal witness
email:       [address in tool bar]   : Eudora Pro 3.0.1 on Intel 586 CPU
web site:  http://www.supremelaw.com : library & law school registration
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech,  at its best
             Tucson, Arizona state   : state zone,  not the federal zone
             Postal Zone 85719/tdc   : USPS delays first class  w/o this
========================================================================


      


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