The remarks of Howard Phillips, Chairman, The Conservative Caucus Inc., given at the Rally in support of Chief Justice Roy Moore, Montgomery, AL

Saturday, August 16, 2003

MR. SCARBOROUGH: Welcome with me, Mr. Howard Phillips, a champion of our cause.

(Cheers and applause.)

MR. HOWARD PHILLIPS: Good morning everyone. I want you to get out, please, your pencil and your paper, And I want you to record a phone number. This -- if I can find it -- is the phone number of an official of the state of Alabama. he happens to be the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Alabama and I’d like you to give him a ring. His phone number is 334-242-7300. And I want you to give him a simple message: Neither the judge of the Middle District of Alabama or three judges of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals can repeal the laws of God. Tell him that, would you?

It’s always disappointing to me when a politician or a judge, who is after all a politician in black robes, puts his personal ambitions ahead of his oath of office and his duty, not just to his constituents, but to God Almighty. I’m fed up with politicians who with false pride proclaim that they will set aside their personal principles, whether the issue is Roe v. Wade or the Ten Commandments, in order to appease the powers that be which control their confirmation and even their appointment.

Please join me in praying that federal court candidate, Alabama’s Attorney General Bill Pryor will subordinate his personal ambition to his sworn duty, to defend the Alabama state Constitution and to uphold the plain text and the literal meaning of the Constitution of the United States. I’m not fond of making predictions, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see after Attorney General Pryor has betrayed Judge Moore, that he recognizes that he could never again be elected to office in Alabama, and that before Congress returns in September, President Bush, as a reward for his good behavior, we’ll give him a recess appointment to the federal judgeship to which he aspires. We don’t know what the future portends, but that would not surprise me.

Now having said that, let me join in congratulating Rick Scarborough and Dr. White (sp) for their extraordinary accomplishment in assembling this crowd. Let me also extend my best wishes to all of those joining me on the speakers’ platform, and let me say a special word for a man who’s been my dear friend for decades and who just celebrated his 70th birthday, Dr. Jerry Falwell.

(Cheers and applause.)

Jerry, God bless you. God bless you.

Rabbi Levin (sp), it’s good to see you, my dear friend, Dr. Alan Keyes. You’re really going to hear some speaking and preaching today. Let me also pay my profound respect not only to the great Judge Moore, God’s man for the moment, but to his wonderful family who is standing faithfully with him and giving him strength and encouragement. Please join me in cheering Kayla (sp) and the children.

(Cheers and applause.)

My friends, this is a crucial moment in the history of the American republic. God may choose to use the unblemished character and the undaunted courage of one faithful man to bring about a turning point in our jurisprudence and in our culture, back to biblical morality and forward to a restoration of a constitutional design and the system of liberty set forth by America’s founding fathers. Here’s what James Madison said -- and Madison was, in addition to being our fourth president, a member of the 1787 constitutional convention and one of the chief architects of that great document, the Constitution.

Here’s what Madison said, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capability of mankind for self government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves, according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

(Cheers and applause.)

My friends, law is always the will of the sovereign. The overarching question we face today, is who is America’s sovereign and what is his law? Chief Justice Roy Moore knows the correct answers, but federal judge Myron Thompson flunks the test. The Holy Bible makes clear that Jesus Christ is our sovereign. He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords and the ruler of all nations.

(Cheers and applause.)

America’s founding fathers understood and acted on this biblical truth. In our Declaration of Independence they proclaimed that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, and they enunciated the truth, that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed. In the very first article of the Constitution of the United States, the framers established the principle of accountability, investing all legislative powers therein granted in a Congress with an appointed Senate representing the states and an elected House representing the people.

Those who framed our great Constitution acknowledged that as God’s creatures we must hold the federal government accountable to us, so that as God’s stewards, we can be accountable to Him.

(Cheers and applause.)

That is our duty, and the Constitution recognizes the fact of the duty we owe our creator and provides the means for us to do our duty. The provisions of the Constitution cannot lawfully be amended by judicial fiat or edicts from the bench. Indeed, Article V of the Constitution spells out the only authorized procedures for amending the Constitution. Nowhere does the Constitution authorize federal judges to change even a single word in the document or to disregard the plain meaning of its text.

In fact, Article VI of the Constitution makes explicitly clear that the Constitution and the laws made pursuant to it are the supreme law of the land. All judicial officials, including Judge Myron Thompson and the judges of the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, have sworn oaths which bind them to support the Constitution as it is written -- (cheers and applause) -- not as they would personally prefer it to be written.

As you know, the First Amendment says Congress will make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Clearly, if the words of the framers are honored, the words of the framers, Congress has no authority to restrict the establishment of biblical religion in the state of Alabama and neither has any federal judge such authority.

(Cheers and applause.)

Congress may not interfere with the free exercise of religion nor may any federal judge interfere with the free exercise of religion. The Tenth Amendment stipulates that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people. No federal court has had delegated to it any authority whatsoever over the placement of the Ten Commandments Monument in the Alabama Judicial Building.

(Cheers and applause.)

Listen closely, my friends. Judge Thompson has violated his oath of office by disregarding the words of our U.S. Constitution and by corruptly attempting to usurp the authority of the elected chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state of Alabama. And so have the federal judges on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals broken their oaths of office. Each of these federal judges has shown contempt for the Constitution. That is why we hold them in contempt. And that is why we call upon them to resign or to be removed from office.

(Cheers and applause.)

When the true history of these times is written, school children will learn that these men are the Benedict Arnolds of American jurisprudence. Each of them should be stripped of their robes as an example to others who in their official capacities seek to supplant constitutional truths with their private anti-Christian prejudices. The good news is that the Constitution has remedies for misconduct by federal judges. Article III, which places the judiciary in a position subordinate to the Article I Congress and the Article II executive, provides that inferior courts -- and they’ve proven themselves inferior -- such as those in which Judge Thompson and his Eleventh Circuit collaborators are installed, are ordained and established by the Congress.

By the same token, the Congress has the clear authority to remove the claims of jurisdiction and to disestablish those courts which are arrogantly and presumptuously anti-constitutional. Article III goes on to provide that federal judges shall hold their offices during, quote, “good behavior,” unquote. No reasonable person could argue that when Judge Thompson breaks his oath to the Constitution and when his rulings are sustained by judges of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, that any of these men have manifested good behavior, which among other things was intended to mean fidelity to the Constitution and fidelity to the oaths which they swore before God.

Even without resort to impeachment, Congress may by legislation disestablish a court and by simple majority vote remove a federal judge for failing to manifest good behavior. If we are to maintain respect for the institutions of our federal republic, lawbreakers and oath breakers must be removed from positions of responsibility.

(Cheers and applause.)

Today I call upon the president and members of Congress to initiate action for the removal of Myron Thompson from his position as judge of the U.S. District Court in the middle of Alabama, Middle District of Alabama. (Cheers and applause.) And to likewise remove from office those members of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, who in disregard of the clear language of the Constitution, upheld Judge Thompson’s ruling against the Ten Commandments.

(Cheers and applause.)

By the way, I don’t mean to get Judge Moore in trouble, these are my words, not his, and he hasn’t cleared them. At the same time, I encourage President Bush and members of Congress to publicly express their approbation and support for the courageous example of the honorable Roy Moore, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama.

(Cheers and applause.)

Judge Moore has kept his oath to the Constitution of Alabama and to the Constitution of the United States. He has upheld the law. He has obeyed his duty to God, to the people of Alabama and to the citizens of the United States of America. As chairman of the conservative caucus, I urge President Bush, when the next vacancy occurs on the Supreme Court of the United States, to nominate to fill that position on the Supreme Court the man best qualified in our entire nation to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the laws of God on which that Constitution is premised.

(Cheers and applause.)

I of course speak of that great patriot, that exemplary jurist, God’s man for these times, the honorable Roy Moore. May God bless Judge Moore and his family, may God bless the people of Alabama.