Taking His message on the road

When President Bush speaks of ending tyranny around the world, former Alabama judge Roy Moore sees a local issue. "The real issue in this country is not terrorism, it's tyranny," Moore said. "Tyranny is putting ourselves above God, and our federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have done exactly that."

Last summer, the American Veterans in Domestic Defense "remove[d]" Justice Moore's "beautiful monument from a dark room of the Alabama Supreme Court building" to take it on educational tour into the heartland, then on to Washington. By November it was in Bossier City, La. This week they were in Austin, at the Capitol grounds, the site of contention in an upcoming Supreme Court case on the subject. (The plaintiff is a lawyer who is homeless.)

There's a case from Kentucky on the docket, too. In both cases, there's an argument that the display was in a secular context. For Moore, a win would not be good enough. "The difference between those cases and my case is the acknowledgement of a sovereign God. It's that simple," he said.