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Ala. AG Won't Help Judge in Federal Fight By BOB JOHNSON Associated Press Writer MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP)--The attorney general and Alabama Supreme Court associate justices are distancing themselves from the state's chief justice, who has pledged to defy a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the state's judicial building. Chief Justice Roy Moore said Thursday he had ``no intention'' of obeying the order to remove the monument from the building, where he moved it in the middle of the night in 2001. He has said that the Ten Commandments represent the moral foundation of American law....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For More Information, Contact: Joy Patterson  (334) 242-7491 Suzanne Webb  (334) 242-7351 STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL BILL PRYOR REGARDING ANNOUNCEMENT OF CHIEF JUSTICE MOORE THAT HE WILL NOT OBEY THE INJUNCTION OF THE FEDERAL COURT "The U. S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama recently served me, as Attorney General, with a certified copy of the injunction against Chief Justice Moore in the Ten Commandments case. Like others, I have awaited the announcement of the Chief Justice regarding his compliance with the injunction. Today the Chief Justice announced that he will not obey the injunction.Although I believe...

<p>Ralph Neas of the People for the American Way made it official. He said it. I bet he didn't even know he said it. Debating C. Boyden Gray of the Committee for Justice on the Fox News Channel's Hannityand Colmes July 29, he was decrying the implication in a Committee for Justice ad that certain senators on the Judiciary Committee were anti-Catholic. The now famous ad defending federal court nominee Bill Pryor depicted a court house door bearing the sign, "Catholics need not apply."</p>

If you live pretty much anywhere in the Western world these days, you'll notice a certain kind of news item cropping up with quiet regularity. The Irish Times had one last week. As Liam Reid reported, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has warned Catholic bishops that distributing the Vatican's latest statement on homosexuality could lead to prosecution under the 1989 Incitement to Hatred Act, and a six-month jail term. "The document itself may not violate the Act, but if you were to use the document to say that gays are evil, it is likely to give rise to hatred,...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate was in its August recess last week, but the Knights of Columbus were meeting in Washington. The world's largest Catholic fraternal organization Thursday passed a resolution condemning opposition to federal judicial nominees because of "deeply held beliefs" stemming from their Catholic faith. That follows intense debate on the Senate floor just before the Senate recessed.On the evening of July 30, the usually circumspect senators engaged in a rare confrontation over religion. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, third-ranking in the Republican leadership and a daily Catholic communicant, accused colleagues of establishing a prohibition for the federal judiciary...

<p>Two questions have rumbled through the commentariat over the last several weeks. They've been treated discretely, but a case can be made that they are linked.</p> <p>The first concerns homosexual marriage. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts appears poised to sanction such unions, which may require other states to honor these marriages under the "full faith and credit" clause of the Constitution.</p>

WASHINGTON - A profound and lasting realignment is likely soon to take place in American politics. Catholics, who for historical reasons have largely voted Democrat, will abandon the party in droves (just as social liberals have been, and are, abandoning the Church). The realignment has been a long time coming. But it is unlikely to be possible any longer to ignore the fact that Church doctrine is incompatible with the policies of the party of the left. At the general level, the Church insists on personal responsibility for individual actions, whereas the left is more likely to find societal or...

WASHINGTON - A profound and lasting realignment is likely soon to take place in American politics. Catholics, who for historical reasons have largely voted Democrat, will abandon the party in droves (just as social liberals have been, and are, abandoning the Church). The realignment has been a long time coming. But it is unlikely to be possible any longer to ignore the fact that Church doctrine is incompatible with the policies of the party of the left. At the general level, the Church insists on personal responsibility for individual actions, whereas the left is more likely to find societal or...

<p>SO IT TAKES an ecumenical group of zealots charging anti-Catholicism in an ad running in a state with a Greek Orthodox senator to make me fully understand the word chutzpah. I guess this is what it means to live in a multicultural society?</p>

Bluntly telling the Vatican to stay out of American politics, U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday said Pope John Paul II ``crossed the line'' by instructing pols to block legalization of gay marriage. A fuming Kerry, taking on his own Catholic Church in the midst of a campaign for president, said Rome should have more respect for America's long-held separation of church and state. ``It is important not to have the church instructing politicians. That is an inappropriate crossing of the line in this country,'' Kerry said. ``President Kennedy drew that line very clearly in 1960 and I believe we...

<p>Senate Democrats voted yesterday to block another of President Bush's nominees to the federal judiciary, and Republicans and Catholic groups said Democrats have in effect imposed a religion test on the nominee, who is a Catholic.</p> <p>The Senate voted 53-44, seven votes shy of the 60-vote threshold, not to end debate and allow an up-or-down vote on Alabama Attorney General William H. Pryor, who has been nominated by Mr. Bush to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. All 51 Republicans supported moving forward, as did two Democrats &#8212; Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia.</p>

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democrats angrily denied charges of religious bigotry on Thursday as they blocked the nomination of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor, an anti-abortion Catholic, to a federal appeals court. During a stormy debate on the Senate floor, Democrats said they oppose Pryor not because of his faith but because of what they described as his extreme right-wing record on matters from civil rights to women's rights. On a 53-44 vote, Pryor's Republican backers fell seven short of the needed 60 to clear the way for a Senate confirmation vote on President Bush (news - web sites)'s nomination...

It's official. Senate Democrats announced on Tuesday that they plan to filibuster the nomination of pro-life Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor to a federal appeals court seat."There will be a filibuster and we will prevail," pro-abortion Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said following a weekly luncheon meeting of Senate Democrats. "I would be surprised if there was not a filibuster."Schumer said the Democratic caucus is "united" and would be surprised if any more than the two Democratic defectors, Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) and pro-life Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), voted against stopping debate on Pryor.Pro-life Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a former U.S....

July 30, 2003, 8:45 a.m. The GOP crosses a line in the fight over the Pryor nomination. On Thursday the Senate will vote on a motion to end debate on the federal appeals-court nomination of William Pryor. If Republicans prevail, the Senate will then move to an up-or-down vote on Pryor's confirmation. It's far more likely, however, that Democrats will block a confirmation vote, beginning a filibuster of Pryor's nomination. Pryor will then become the third Bush appeals-court nominee, along with Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen, to face a Democratic filibuster. In one sense, Republicans are grateful it has come...

Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Leaders of several liberal religious groups held a press briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday to defend pro-abortion Democrats who oppose one of President Bush's pro-life judicial nominees and to argue that objections to Alabama Attorney General William H. "Bill" Pryor are not based on his pro-life, Catholic beliefs. But Pryor's supporters point to the treatment of other nominees with traditional religious beliefs to support their claims. "Americans should understand that a person's religion, as the Constitution requires, should never be a qualification for public office," said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), a pro-abortion Catholic who opposes Pryor's...

The Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput, is the archbishop of Denver, and widely admired among those who hope and pray for renewal in the American Catholic Church. Bishop Chaput has taken an unprecedented step: He has commented upon a political debate pitting Republicans against Democrats in the United States Senate. The debate is over the nomination of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor to the 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, and it has been marked by a vicious campaign against Pryor that appears to many, including me, to be rooted in hostility to Pryor's faith – a robust,...

<p>Sen. Charles E. Schumer yesterday said Democrats will filibuster the nomination of Alabama's attorney general to the federal bench, which would make him the third judicial nominee of President Bush to be blocked by Democrats.</p> <p>"I have never seen the caucus stronger and more united," the New York Democrat said after his party's weekly planning lunch. "There will be another filibuster, and we will prevail."</p>

Senate Democrats edged closer yesterday to launching a filibuster of the federal judicial nomination of Alabama Attorney General William Pryor Jr. and hit back at critics who say their opposition is based on anti-Catholic bias. “There will be a filibuster and we will prevail,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said following a weekly luncheon meeting of Senate Democrats. “I would be surprised if there was not a filibuster.” Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, added, “The meeting was very emotional. The two-by-four tactics of [our opponents] is uniting our caucus. I’ve never seen our caucus more united.” Other Democrats...

A bitterly divided Senate Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to approve the appellate court nomination of Alabama Attorney General Wm Pryor and send it to the Senate, where a Democratic filibuster appears increasingly likely. Sen. Specter said he was voting to send the nomination to the floor but would reserve judgment on whether Pryor should be confirmed until the Senate considers it. Without Specter's vote, the nomination could have died in committee.

A despicable debate In April, we expressed hope that the debate over Bill Pryor's nomination to a seat on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals would be a high-minded one on legal philosophy and constitutional law. Our hope has been dashed. This week, the debate degenerated to despicable levels in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, dragged down as much by supporters of the nomination as it was by opponents. Pryor has many of the attributes found in good judges. He has been an honest public official whose intellectual skills and integrity would keep his decisions on the bench within...