MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court asked a federal appeals court to block an order for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from a state building.
Attorneys for Chief Justice Roy Moore asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to stay an order to remove the monument by midnight Wednesday. The papers were filed late Monday.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson has said he may fine the state about $5,000 a day if the monument is not removed by the deadline.
Moore has fought to keep the monument in the judicial building, where it has been for two years, saying the Ten Commandments represent the moral foundation of American law.
Thompson and a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court have ruled that the monument is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by government.
Earlier Monday, Thompson refused Moore's request for a stay of his order for the monument's removal. Moore also has filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.
Ayesha Khan, an attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups that filed a lawsuit seeking the monument's removal, said Moore is egging on a confrontation with the federal courts to advance his political agenda.
The Christian Defense Coalition is organizing a protest to prevent the monument's removal.