Roy Stewart Moore (born February 11, 1947) is an American judge and Republican politician and the current Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He is noted for his refusal, in 2003, in his first term as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building despite orders to do so from a federal judge. On November 13, 2003, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed Moore from his post as Chief Justice.

In the years preceding his first election to the state Supreme Court, Moore successfully resisted attempts to have a display of the Ten Commandments removed from the courtroom. The controversy around Moore generated national attention. Moore's supporters regard his stand as a defense of "judicial rights" and the Constitution of Alabama. Moore contended that federal judges who ruled against his actions consider "obedience of a court order superior to all other concerns, even the suppression of belief in the sovereignty of God."[1]

Moore sought the Republican nomination for the governorship of Alabama in 2006, but lost to incumbent Bob Riley in the June primary by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. On June 1, 2009 he announced his campaign for the 2010 election for governor.[2] Moore placed fourth in the Republican primary held on June 1, 2010, having received only 19 percent of the vote.

On April 18, 2011, Moore announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to run in the Republican presidential primaries in 2012.[3][4] When that campaign failed to gain traction, he began to draw speculation in the media as being a potential Constitution Party presidential contender.[5][6] In November 2011, 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.[7]

On November 6, 2012, Moore won election back to the office of Alabama Chief Justice, defeating replacement Democratic candidate Bob Vance.[8][9]

Moore was born in Gadsden, the seat of Etowah County, to Roy Baxter Moore (died 1967) and the former Evelyn Stewart. The couple had met and married after his discharge from the United States Army during World War II. Roy was the oldest of five children, three boys and two girls, born to the couple. Moore describes his father, a construction worker, as "a hardworking man who earned barely enough to make ends meet, but he taught me more than money could ever buy. From him I learned about honesty, integrity, perseverance, and never to be ashamed of who you are or what you believe in. Early on my dad shared with me the truth about God's love and the sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus." Moore described his mother as a "homemaker who was always there to help me with my schoolwork, to care for me when I was sick, and to encourage me to do the best I could."[1]

In 1954, the Moores relocated to Houston, Texas, site of a postwar building boom. After some four years, they returned to Alabama, then moved to Pennsylvania, and returned permanently to Alabama. In his later years, the senior Moore worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority building dams and later the Anniston Army Depot. Moore attended school his freshman year at Gallant near Gadsden but transferred to Etowah County High School for his final three years of public education, having graduated in 1965.[1]

On the recommendation of outgoing Democratic U.S. Representative Albert Rains and confirmed by incoming Republican Representative James D. Martin of Gadsden, Moore was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he graduated in 1969 with a Bachelor of Science degree. With the Vietnam War underway, Moore first served in several posts as a military police officer, including Fort Benning, Georgia, and Illesheim, Germany before being sent to South Vietnam. Moore served as company commander of his MP unit and was known to be very strict. Some of the soldiers gave him the derogatory nickname, "Captain America," because of his attitude toward discipline. His role earned him several enemies, and in his autobiography he recalls sleeping on sandbags to avoid a grenade or bomb being tossed under his cot, as many had threatened fragging the commander.

Moore left the United States Army as a captain in 1974, and was admitted to the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa that same year. He graduated in 1977 with a Juris Doctor degree and returned to Gadsden to begin private practice with a focus on personal injury and insurance cases.

Moore soon moved to the district attorney's office, working as the first full-time prosecutor in Etowah County. During his tenure there, Moore was investigated by the state bar for "suspect conduct" after convening a grand jury to discuss what he perceived to have been funding shortages in the sheriff's office. Several weeks after the state bar investigation was dismissed as unfounded, 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 Moore alleging that cases were being delayed in exchange for payoffs. The allegations were never substantiated, and Moore overwhelmingly lost the Democratic runoff primary to fellow attorney Donald Stewart, whom Moore described as "an honorable man for whom I have much respect, and he eventually became a close friend."[1] A second bar complaint against Moore followed, and though this too was dismissed as unfounded, Moore left Gadsden shortly thereafter in great disappointment.

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