Alabama ordered to pay $550,000 in Moore case

MONTGOMERY — A federal judge on April 14 ordered Alabama to pay more than half a million dollars in lawyer fees and expenses in connection with the suit to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama State Judicial Building rotunda.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson gave the state up to 30 days to pay $549,430.53 to lawyers for people who sued to remove the monument placed in the rotunda by Roy Moore, the state’s ousted chief justice.

Thompson earlier found that the monument violated the First Amendment’s ban on state establishment of religion and ordered Moore to remove it from the rotunda. Moore refused and was later removed from office by the state Court of the Judiciary, which found him guilty of violating the state’s canons of judicial ethics.

Plaintiff’s lawyers originally asked for nearly $850,000 in fees and expenses, but they reached a settlement for the lower amount.