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Editorials: Judges can't ignore laws. The Buffalo (N.Y.) News Aug. 26 Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore needs a lesson. Not a Bible lesson. He seems to have gotten that one down, particularly as it relates to the Ten Commandments. Moore needs a lesson in the separation of church and state. His eight associate justices last week overruled Moore, and ordered that he obey a federal court order to remove the 5,300-pound granite marker that he put in the rotunda of the state judicial building. Moore, who contends he is bound to obey God's law when he decides it goes against secular law, was suspended last week by a state judicial ethics commission for disobeying the order by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson to move the monument. The commission referred a complaint about Moore to the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which can hold hearings and discipline or remove judges. This dispute should have been settled nine months ago, when Thompson ordered the removal of the monument. Moore is trampling on two bedrock principles of the American experience: The rule of law and the separation of church and state. Moore may feel he has sufficient reason to disobey a federal court order. No doubt former Alabama Gov. George Wallace believed he also had sufficient reason to disobey a federal order to integrate the University of Alabama. The point is, if every official can pick and choose what laws or judicial orders he wants to obey, chaos results. Blowout sale in California Los Angeles Daily News Aug. 26 Remember California's do-nothing Legislature, the hapless body that couldn't pass the state budget for months and didn't fix anything when it finally did? The Oct. 7 recall election has made those days a thing of the past. Suddenly, legislators are ready to get to work, and work hard, to crank out legislation at breakneck speed. In total, Gov. Gray Davis stands to sign or veto as many as 1,300 pieces of legislation - that's more than 10 for every member of the Legislature - before his Oct. 7 judgment day. And it's judgment day that drives the frenzy. Special interests of all kinds - business, labor, attorneys and more - know that Davis is desperate for campaign cash and so is everyone else. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -