US 'holy rock' judge stands firm

Roy Moore (at the podium) has attracted nationwide attention

Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore has said he will defy court orders to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from a judicial building.

He said he was "very disappointed" in his fellow judges, who decreed that the inscribed granite plinth be taken out of public view as soon as possible.

The issue is polarising opinion between those who believe the monument violates the constitutional safeguards separating Church and state and those who believe it is their constitutional right to honour their God.

Crowds of people, praying and singing hymns, have remained outside the rotunda of the judicial building in the state capital Montgomery where the Ten Commandments have pride of place.

They cheered when Mr Moore said he would ignore the order from a federal court - which is backed by the Alabama Supreme Court - to move the plinth he installed in July 2001.

"Let me assure you the fight to defend our constitutional rights to acknowledge God will continue," he said.

'Enough is enough'

Mr Moore said a new petition would be sent to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to intervene when Mr Moore earlier asked it to overturn a deadline for the monument to be removed by midnight (0500 GMT Thursday).

Police took action after protesters refused to leave

But he added that sometimes it was necessary for laws to be ignored or broken - saying slavery would still be in effect if judges were always obeyed.

"Enough is enough. We must defend our rights," he told the crowd.

"No judge or man can dictate in whom we believe or in whom we trust."

Earlier police arrested a number of protesters who refused to leave the area around the monument, which has been dubbed "Roy's holy rock". Most were later released though they may still face charges.

After the deadline for Mr Moore to move the plinth expired, state supreme court justices ordered action be taken.

Alabama senior associate justice Gorman Houston said the latest ruling called on the judicial building's manager to remove the monument "as soon as practicable".

God and law

A federal judge had ruled the monument violated the US constitution's ban on government establishment of religion and must be removed from its public place.

The associate justices wrote that they are "bound by solemn oath to follow the law, whether they agree or disagree with it".

The BBC's David Bamford in Washington says most Americans are, by nature, religious even if separation of state and religion is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

He says the Declaration of Independence refers to God, every dollar bill states "In God We Trust" and a majority of people claim membership of a church, not least every recent president.

But for the last 30 years, the evangelical movement has become a driving force of the Republican right. It is this politicisation of religion that has ignited bitter feuding around not just issues such as abortion and gay rights but also whether a courthouse in a Bible-belt state can display the Ten Commandments, our correspondent says.