114 Facts About Roy Moore

Roy Stewart Moore was born on February 11,1947 and is an American politician, lawyer, and jurist who served as the 27th and 31st chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama from 2001 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2017, each time being removed from office for judicial misconduct by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.

Roy Moore attended West Point and served as a company commander in the Military Police Corps during the Vietnam War.

In 2001, Roy Moore was elected to the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama.

Roy Moore was removed from his position in November 2003 by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary for refusing a federal court's order to remove a marble monument of the Ten Commandments that he had placed in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

Roy Moore sought the Republican nomination for the governorship of Alabama in 2006 and 2010, but lost in the primaries.

Roy Moore has been described as an advocate of far-right politics.

Roy Moore has attracted national media attention and controversy over his views on race, homosexuality, transgender people, and Islam, his belief that Christianity should order public policy, and his past ties to neo-Confederates and white nationalist groups.

Roy Moore was a leading voice in the birther movement, which promoted the false claim that president Barack Obama was not born in the United States.

Roy Moore founded the Foundation for Moral Law, a non-profit legal organization from which he collected more than $1 million over five years.

Roy Moore's father worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority, first building dams and later the Anniston Army Depot.

Roy Moore attended his freshman year of high school at Gallant near Gadsden, and transferred to Etowah County High School for his final three years, graduating in 1965.

Roy Moore graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Roy Moore insisted his troops salute him on the battlefield, despite official training which discourages such behavior because salutes can identify an officer to enemy targeting.

Roy Moore was discharged from the United States Army as a captain in 1974, and was admitted to the University of Alabama School of Law that same year.

Roy Moore soon moved to the district attorney's office, working as the first full-time prosecutor in Etowah County.

Several weeks after the state bar investigation was dismissed as unfounded, Roy Moore quit his prosecuting position to run as a Democrat for the county's circuit-court judge seat in 1982.

The election was bitter, with Roy Moore alleging that cases were being delayed in exchange for payoffs.

Roy Moore overwhelmingly lost the Democratic runoff primary to fellow attorney Donald Stewart, whom Roy Moore described as "an honorable man for whom I have much respect, eventually became a close friend".

Roy Moore left Gadsden shortly thereafter to live for a year in Australia.

Roy Moore returned to Gadsden in 1985, and at that time married Kayla Kisor.

Roy Moore ran in 1986 for Etowah County's district attorney position against fellow Democrat Jimmy Hedgspeth.

In 1992, Roy Moore switched his affiliation to the Republican Party.

Roy Moore's name was floated by some of his associates, and a background check was initiated with several state and county agencies, including the Etowah County district attorney's office.

Roy Moore was the first county-wide Republican to win since Reconstruction.

Roy Moore told the Montgomery Advertiser that his intention in hanging the plaque was to fill up the bare space on the courtroom walls and to indicate the importance of the Ten Commandments.

Roy Moore stated that it was not his intention to generate controversy.

In that year's election, Roy Moore won the seat in a landslide victory over attorney Keith Pitts, who had unsuccessfully prosecuted the "Silk and Satin" murder case.

In March 1995, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Roy Moore, stating that the pre-court session prayers and the Ten Commandments display were both unconstitutional.

Immediately after the ruling, Roy Moore held a press conference vowing to defy the ruling against pre-session prayers and affirming a religious intent in displaying the plaque.

Roy Moore appealed Price's decision and kept the plaque up; ten days later the Supreme Court of Alabama issued a temporary stay against the ruling.

Roy Moore said that he was hesitant to make the statewide race because he had "absolutely no funds" and three other candidates, particularly Associate Justice Harold See, were well-financed.

Nevertheless, on December 7,1999, Roy Moore announced from his Etowah County courtroom that he would enter the race with the hope of returning "God to our public life and restore the moral foundation of our law".

Roy Moore's campaign, centered on religious issues, arguing that Christianity's declining influence "corresponded directly with school violence, homosexuality, and crime".

Roy Moore was the heavy favorite to win the Republican nomination because of his support from the state business community and the party hierarchy, including Chief Justice Hooper.

However, as Moore made headway in state polls, See elicited the help of Republican strategist Karl Rove, advisor to Texas governor and future president George W Bush.

Roy Moore was sworn in as chief justice on January 15,2001.

High-grade granite from Vermont was ordered and shipped, and Roy Moore found benefactors and a sculptor to complete the job.

Roy Moore's actions were made without the consent or knowledge of the eight associate justices.

Videotapes of this event were sold by Coral Ridge Ministries, an evangelical media outlet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which later used proceeds from the sales of the tapes to underwrite Roy Moore's ensuing legal expenses.

The next morning, Roy Moore held a press conference in the rotunda to publicly unveil the monument.

Roy Moore argued that he would not remove the monument, as doing so would violate his oath of office:.

Additionally, Roy Moore acknowledged an explicit theistic intent in placing the monument, agreeing that the monument "reflects the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men" and "acknowledge[s] God's overruling power over the affairs of men".

Roy Moore installed a two-and-a-half ton monument in the most prominent place in a government building, managed with dollars from all state taxpayers, with the specific purpose and effect of establishing a permanent recognition of the 'sovereignty of God,' the Judeo-Christian God, over all citizens in this country, regardless of each taxpaying citizen's individual personal beliefs or lack thereof.

Judge Thompson's decision mandated that Roy Moore remove the monument from the state judicial building by January 3,2003, but stayed this order on December 23,2002, after Roy Moore appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Roy Moore appealed the COJ's ruling to the Supreme Court of Alabama on December 10,2003.

Roy Moore argued that the COJ did not consider the underlying legality of the federal courts' order that the monument be removed from the courthouse.

The Alabama Supreme Court rejected this argument, saying that the COJ did not have the authority to overrule the federal courts, only to determine whether Roy Moore violated the Canons of Judicial Ethics.

Roy Moore argued that the COJ had imposed a religious test on him to hold his office, and that the COJ's actions had violated his own rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

Roy Moore sought to return to the bench, and in the March 2012 Republican primary for chief justice of Alabama, Roy Moore won the Republican nomination, defeating the sitting Chief Justice Chuck Malone and Mobile County circuit judge Charles Graddick.

On January 28,2015, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a judicial ethics complaint against Roy Moore, stating that he had publicly commented on pending same-sex marriage cases and encouraged state officials and judges to ignore federal court rulings overturning bans on same-sex marriage.

Roy Moore was suspended from the Alabama Supreme Court pending trial and ruling.

Roy Moore faced removal from office over the charges, which were more serious than those which removed him from office in 2003.

The JIC's complaint charged Roy Moore with violating the Alabama Canon of Judicial Ethics by:.

Roy Moore was tasked with upholding the law of the land when marriage equality was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States, and he defied that task, in the process harming loving, committed same-sex couples across Alabama for his own personal, discriminatory reasons.

At an August 2016 hearing before the Alabama Court of the Judiciary on the motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, Roy Moore's attorneys continued to assert that Roy Moore did not order probate judges to disobey the injunction issued by the US District Court or the US Supreme Court ruling on same-sex marriage.

The attorney for the JIC responded that Roy Moore's argument "defies common sense" and said that Roy Moore was defying a federal court order, just as he did in 2003, and should be immediately removed from office.

On September 30,2016, Roy Moore was found guilty of all six charges and suspended for the remainder of his term, slated to end in 2019.

In October 2016, Roy Moore filed a notice of appeal with the Court of the Judiciary appealing his suspension and the final judgment to the Alabama Supreme Court.

Six days following the court's ruling, Roy Moore resigned from the Alabama Supreme Court.

Roy Moore then announced he would be running for the United States Senate.

Roy Moore founded the nonprofit Christian legal organization Foundation for Moral Law in 2002.

Roy Moore stated that he did not draw a "regular salary" from the organization.

In October 2017 The Washington Post reported that Roy Moore had arranged an annual salary of $180,000 for himself from the foundation.

The Washington Post reported that Roy Moore arranged the salary and that, in 2012 when the charity could not pay his full salary, Roy Moore received a note promising that he would get the salary in back pay or a stake in the assets of the foundation.

Roy Moore was paid $65,000 annually after he again took his seat on the Alabama Supreme Court.

Roy Moore admitted that the board failed to provide sufficient oversight and that he personally had been less involved than his position required.

Roy Moore acknowledged the foundation was effectively run entirely by Moore and his family.

Roy Moore considered running for the nomination of the Republican Party and the Constitution Party in the 2004 presidential election.

In 2004, along with Herb Titus, Roy Moore was an original drafter of the Constitution Restoration Act, which sought to remove federal courts' jurisdiction over a government official or entity's "acknowledgment of God as the sovereign source of law, liberty, or government", and provided for the impeachment of judges who failed to do so.

In October 2005, Roy Moore announced that he would run against Governor Bob Riley in the 2006 Republican gubernatorial primary.

Roy Moore's campaign relied largely on his popularity among Christian right voters.

However, Roy Moore consistently performed poorly in polling and in fundraising.

In 2009, Roy Moore launched another campaign for governor of Alabama in 2010 election.

In November 2011, Roy Moore withdrew his exploratory committee and ended all speculation of a presidential candidacy when he instead announced that he would in 2012 seek his former post of chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.

On November 6,2012, Roy Moore won election back to the office of Alabama chief justice, defeating replacement Democratic candidate Bob Vance.

Roy Moore was outspent in the runoff by a margin of 10-to-1, thanks in part to the efforts of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.

On September 26,2017, Roy Moore defeated Strange in the Republican primary runoff election to become the Republican nominee.

Roy Moore faced Democratic nominee Doug Jones, a former United States attorney, and several write-in candidates in a special election on December 12,2017.

Roy Moore turned down debate invitations extended by the League of Women Voters and WHNT-TV and AL.

Roy Moore said that he refused to debate Jones because of Jones's "very liberal stance on transgenderism and transgenderism in the military and in bathrooms".

Roy Moore's campaign responded, stating that his statement was based on the religious song "Jesus Loves the Little Children".

Roy Moore refused to concede despite Trump, Bannon, and others urging him to do so.

Roy Moore had only $636,046 on hand by the time the campaign ended.

Roy Moore became the first Republican to lose a statewide race in Alabama since Republican Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh lost the 2008 president of the Alabama Public Service Commission election to Democratic former lieutenant governor Lucy Baxley.

Roy Moore was the first Republican to lose a United States Senate election in Alabama since Richard Sellers in 1992.

Roy Moore announced on June 20,2019, that he would challenge Doug Jones for his Senate seat in the 2020 election.

Roy Moore has been considered a "rising star of the alt-right movement" by The Jerusalem Post and an "alt-right hero" by The Washington Post.

Roy Moore was a leading proponent of the birther movement, the debunked conspiracy theory postulating that Barack Obama is not a US citizen.

Roy Moore repeatedly promoted the conspiracy theory from 2008 and through to at least December 2016.

In 2011, Roy Moore appeared twice on the Aroostook Watchmen radio program, a conspiracy-theory show hosted by two Maine men who promote "birther" falsehoods as well as "false flag" conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks, the Sandy Hook massacre, Boston bombing, and other mass shootings and terrorist attacks.

Roy Moore has suggested, without providing any evidence, that former president Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.

Roy Moore was a strong opponent of a proposed amendment to the Alabama Constitution in 2004.

Roy Moore's opposition has been cited as a reason for the failure of the referendum.

In 2011, Roy Moore said on Aroostook Watchmen, a right-wing conspiracy radio show that getting rid of all the constitutional amendments after the Tenth Amendment would "eliminate many problems".

In 2007, Roy Moore opposed preschool, claiming that attendees are "much more likely to learn a liberal social and political philosophy" and that state involvement in early childhood education is characteristic of totalitarianism.

Roy Moore has suggested pulling out of various free trade agreements, saying that he would rescind "unfair free trade agreements which have severely damaged our economy".

In July 2017, Roy Moore stated that he was unfamiliar with what the Dreamer program was.

Later, in September 2017, Roy Moore criticized Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which grants temporary stay to unauthorized immigrants brought to the United States as children.

Roy Moore believes that homosexuality goes against "the laws of nature" and stated it is comparable to bestiality.

In 1996, while presiding over a divorce case, Roy Moore ruled that a mother who had had a lesbian affair would lose custody of her children to the father and that she could not be allowed see her children unless she was supervised.

In February 2002, as Alabama Chief Justice, Roy Moore issued a controversial opinion that expressed his belief that the state should use its powers to punish "homosexual behavior".

In 2016, Moore was suspended from the Alabama Supreme Court for instructing state probate judges to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in contravention of Obergefell v Hodges, in which the US Supreme Court determined that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

In 2017, Roy Moore called for impeaching judges who have issued rulings supportive of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.

In November 2016, Moore argued that the Obergefell ruling was worse than the 1857 Dred Scott v Sandford ruling.

In November 2017, Roy Moore said that transgender people "don't have rights".

Roy Moore has suggested that the Sandy Hook shooting, which killed 28 people, was "because we've forgotten the law of God".

Roy Moore has called for banning Muslims from serving in Congress, described Islam as a "false religion" and made unsubstantiated claims about Sharia law in the United States.

In 2006, Roy Moore wrote that Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim to have been elected to the United States House of Representatives, should be barred from sitting in Congress because in his view, a Muslim could not honestly take the oath of office.

Independent witnesses confirmed that Roy Moore had a reputation for approaching teenage girls, often at a local mall, and asking them out.

Roy Moore has offered contradictory responses on whether he knew his accusers.

In September 2018, Roy Moore filed a lawsuit against Baron Cohen, Showtime, and CBS Corporation seeking $95 million in damages for alleged fraud, defamation, and emotional distress.

Roy Moore first saw his future wife, Kayla Kisor, when she was in her mid-teens performing at a dance recital.

Roy Moore filed for divorce from her first husband on December 28,1984, and was divorced on April 19,1985.

Roy Moore wrote weekly columns for the far-right website WorldNetDaily from 2006 to 2009.