MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Chief Justice Roy Moore returned to the Alabama
Judicial Building and spoke with its manager Friday, as supporters outside
prayed that a Ten Commandments monument might remain in the rotunda, despite
orders to move it.

Moore stood near the monument as he talked to building manager Graham
George, who was instructed Thursday by the rest of the justices on the
state's high court to carry out the removal. It wasn't known what was said.

Moore spent much of Thursday vowing to do everything within his power to
keep the monument in place. His eight colleagues on the state Supreme Court
had ordered the monument taken out after a federal judge's midnight removal
deadline passed.

After entering the building Friday, Moore waved to 40 or so supporters but
didn't come outside to meet them as they sang and prayed during a vigil kept
from sleeping bags and bedrolls.

The Rev. Herman Henderson of Believers' Tabernacle in Birmingham opted to
nap on the concrete with his head resting on sheet music for the song, ``I
Shall Not Be Moved.''

They remained quiet throughout the night, prompting police to retreat to
their post across the street.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson set the midnight deadline after deciding
that sitting in the public rotunda, the monument violated the Constitution's
ban on government promotion of a religious doctrine. Thompson has said it
could be moved to a private place still within the building.

The judge had threatened $5,000-a-day fines if Moore left the monument in
the rotunda.

Thompson was scheduled to have a conference call with attorneys in the case
Friday. Lawyers suing to remove the monument also have filed a complaint
with the state Judicial Inquiry Commission, alleging that Moore violated
canons of judicial ethics by refusing to carry out a court order.

The commission, which was scheduled to meet Friday, can send a case to the
Court of the Judiciary, which holds trials and has the power to discipline
and remove judges. Judicial ethics cases usually take months.

George was instructed by the state's high court to ``take all steps
necessary to comply'' with the federal court's removal order, justice Gorman
Houston said. George declined to comment when asked when, how or where the
monument would be moved.

Moore condemned his fellow judges for their orders. In their ruling, the
Alabama justices stated they were ``bound by solemn oath'' to uphold the
law.

``I will never deny the God upon whom our laws and country depend,'' Moore
said Thursday in defending the 5,300-pound granite marker, which he
installed two years ago and contends is representation of the moral
foundation of American law.

``Not only did Judge Thompson put himself above the law, but above God as
well,'' Moore told supporters.

The chief justice had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for an emergency
stay of the removal order, but the court rejected it Wednesday. Moore said
Thursday he would file a formal appeal with the high court soon ``to defend
our constitutional right to acknowledge God.''

``I cannot forsake my conscience,'' he said.

Richard Cohen, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center - which sued
along with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for
Separation of Church and State - praised the eight justices.

``Their courageous actions reflect that Justice Moore is a disgrace to the
bench and ought to resign or be removed from office,'' Cohen said.

Still, protesters outside the building said they were willing to stand in
the heat and risk arrest for days or weeks to keep the monument inside.
Twenty-one were arrested Wednesday night on trespassing charges.

Stephen Hopkins, pastor of Burnet Bible Church in Burnet, Texas, was one of
those arrested. He said he was willing to be arrested even though he has 10
children.

``This is a great hypocrisy,'' Hopkins said. ``This is an assault on God.
They're saying we're going to cover up God.''

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