By Win Johnson

APR reached out to U.S Sen. Luther Strange’s campaign to offer an opportunity to make a closing argument for his election. Strange’s people did not respond.

To Christians and conservatives who believe in the Constitution: After watching President Trump in Huntsville support Luther Strange, for me, this election for the U.S. Senate seat is not about Trump – both men may support him, and it’s not about the wall – both men support that. And it’s not even about who is more pro-life or more pro-2nd amendment. It’s about something more important than any of that.

Compare the two men’s lives and see what I mean. I would imagine that when Roy Moore was being dressed down by the federal courts, Bill Pryor and the Court of the Judiciary, Luther Strange took the typical Christian lawyer stand: “I had no problem with the monument in the Judicial Building, but when he disobeyed the federal judge, we had to part ways.” Right? So many conservatives and Christians said just that.

But that position betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what happened in 2003. When Roy Moore, as chief justice, refused to remove the monument, the other eight justices on the Alabama Supreme Court voted to have it removed, and it was. So why was he later prosecuted by the JIC? As a prosecutor, Pryor demanded that Moore admit that he would “continue to acknowledge God.” Moore rightly admitted he would and that he “must.” The Court removed him from office for refusing to recant his dogged commitment to the acknowledgment of God. Understand that at this point in time, the monument was nowhere near the Judicial Building; it had been removed for good. Google “Bill Pryor Roy Moore cross-examination” to see the 2:40-minute video.

Therefore, his trial was akin to a Stalinesque tribunal, intended to re-educate him into the acknowledgment of federal judge supremacy in place of the acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. Judge Moore would have probably escaped the judicial “death penalty,” had he answered Bill Pryor’s inquisitorial probing this way: “I will continue to personally acknowledge God, but as Chief Justice, I will meekly give way to the supremacy of a federal judge to command me to violate my conscience as a person and as a judge.” Moore wouldn’t be re-educated, so he had to go.

This was like a Marxist propaganda trial in the new Amerika, where there is no God higher than the state. Bow to the black robe no matter what your conscience says. Other judges were to learn from this trial and never question a federal court – ever. This trial set obedience to man over conscience before God, authoritarianism over liberty and the judiciary over the Constitution. It made a mockery of the concept of the rule of law, which was supposed to liberate us from the rule of man, but it has now become a weapon to subjugate us to the words and opinions of judges. If you think this is the rule of law in action, you are sorely deceived.

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In 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its pronouncement for the entire nation: “Hear ye, hear ye, all ye lands and states, shall now legalize, countenance and solemnize same-sex marriage as you do traditional marriage. It does not matter that this Court has not reviewed your laws and constitutional provisions in a case or controversy. We hereby issue this national order to all of this nation, as the supreme chief executive of this United States.” Justice Anthony Kennedy’s opinion went beyond the tyrannical combination of judicial and legislative function by rewriting the law of marriage; he also acted like an executive, proclaiming a command for all states even without a case or controversy before the Court from those states. He combined all three branches of government into himself, the ultimate tyranny. Alabama’s law and constitution were never reviewed, nor was this state a party to the same-sex marriage case. Nor was Chief Justice Moore. He was never defying any legitimate court order when he issued his administrative order in Jan. 2016.

In fact, he was trying to get the Alabama Supreme Court to do its job. It had a pending injunction, which for you non-lawyers, is one of the strongest judicial orders there can be. No one but the originating court can undo an injunction, not even a higher court. In Alabama, a court’s goal is to not have something pending in a case for more than six months. When Chief Justice Moore issued his admin order, the Alabama Supreme Court had sat for six months on its injunction and on pending briefs as to the effect of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. He wanted the Court to rule as was its duty, but they hadn’t, hence his order.

While pushing the envelope, Moore’s order was not without legal merit. The simple solution was for the Court to simply admit that it was without authority to question the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion or to explain why its injunction could stay in place. It had done neither. Moore was trying to stay within an arguable legal basis for his order, but he was still brought up on charges by the JIC. Again, he did not bow and genuflect to the U.S. Supreme Court to the satisfaction of the Alabama legal community, which runs these show trials.

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Where was Luther Strange? As attorney general, his office had fought same-sex marriage until the U.S. Supreme Court issued its June 26, 2015, opinion, then it gave way and said it was now the law. Had Luther Strange stood up to the U.S. Supreme Court and demanded that before the state caves, the U.S. Supreme Court review Alabama’s law, then the chief justice would have had an ally in Luther Strange. Luther Strange and his allies in this campaign have even falsely accused Moore of causing the state to spend money on the marriage cases. Would Luther Strange have preferred the state cave earlier, like certain other states did with respect to marriage?

Daniel Horowitz has called judicial imperialism the premier issue of our time because of the damage it does to the constitutional system, the concept of ordered liberty, the rule of law and even the nation’s social fabric.

Google Horowitz’s online article, “Lighting Up America.” And we as a society, as a legal community, have not only allowed this situation to develop, we have promoted it. We do so by saying that the word of a judge is like that of a king and by disciplining those who stand by their conscience. Instead, we should demand that judges subject themselves to the rule of the Constitution instead of subjecting us to their personal rule.

Thus, a judge who believes that abortion is murder must allow a teenager to have an abortion contrary to her parent’s wishes. Thus the judge’s conscience is defiled, which is apparently more to be desired than incurring the wrath of the pro-death legal system. Oh, and it’s more desirable than losing one’s position as a judge, right? But I thought it was unprofitable to gain the whole world and lose one’s soul in the process. “Conform! Repent of any knowledge of God in your professional life! Give unto Caesar all that is His and all that is God’s. Oh, and that Constitution, a piece of paper from two centuries ago – we’ll tell you what it says, and you’ll obey us. Then, we’ll let you serve in public office.” That is where we are as a nation. If you think that is what this country and the rule of law are about, I have no words. And we are sitting on the edge of something even more sinister and dark, perhaps the darkest in our nation’s history – when Christians in public office will be called upon to literally persecute their fellow believers. They will either realize before that moment arrives that Roy Moore was correct to stand up to tyranny no matter the cost. Or they will become like those who threaten them with punishment for standing for that truth, and they will lose their souls in the process.

There is one person I can point to who has not bowed the knee to this insidious system of control, a system that ensures a judicially-sanctioned defiance of the Constitution in our laws, and that’s Roy Moore. When the authorities say, “Obey us no matter what,” he asks, “Why – if you shred the Constitution in the process?” When they say, “You’re showing disrespect for the authority of the judicial system,” he says, “The judicial system has no authority but what is given it by the Constitution . . . the Constitution which the judiciary no longer respects and treats like silly putty.” When they say, “But there must be order for the system to work,” he says, “There must be LAWFUL order, or there is tyranny, for liberty is prior to order in the American system of law.”

At each crisis time in his professional life, Roy Moore has taken the hit and suffered the loss of position, reputation, and financial reward. He has shown us what it takes to stand for truth in a world that no longer believes in truth.

And Luther Strange has recently faced crisis points for the test of his character. He could have told Governor Bentley: “I care too much for the Alabama justice system to even give the appearance that justice is for sale. I refuse any appointment to Sessions’ senate seat and will have to run for the office as a non-incumbent in the special election for the seat.” But incumbency was too tempting. Then, when the Senate Leadership Fund began to run slander upon slander against not only Roy Moore but also his wife, Kayla, Luther Strange could have manned up and told McConnell, Rove and other swamp dwellers that their lies should stop and disavowed the hellish tactics of deceit and defamation. But he didn’t.

Luther Strange failed at his crisis points, while Moore came through as gold, stronger in his faith and conviction that only God Almighty can save America. Not Donald Trump, not even the Constitution – only God. Moore believes that only the living God can save this country from the progressives’ commitment to the destruction of the Constitution aided by corrupt cowardice in those who should know better. I believe Moore is ready to stand for the truth no matter the cost. Do you believe Luther Strange is prepared to do that?

I don’t just call upon you to vote for Roy Moore on Tues, Sept. 26, I call upon Luther Strange, as a self-professed Christian, to repent of his failures. Having been a scoundrel and coward myself, I recognize that honesty is the only way to escape one’s wicked past. Mr. Strange should admit that his actions and inactions in the past year have disqualified him from office, making him unfit for the office of U.S. senator. IMO, that’s how he can best preserve his soul.

We Alabamians have sometimes played it wise and safe as the country goes to hell and watched Roy Moore take the hits for truth, secretly relishing the fact that he had his come-uppance for thinking he could single-handedly stand against those powers destroying the nation, nit-picking his foibles that pale in comparison to the evil he has attempted to stand against. We have left Roy Moore all alone, like the sheriff in the movie “High Noon.” Let’s stand up for him now and reward him for his courage.

We now have a chance to send Roy Moore into the heart of that darkness, where perhaps, with God’s help, he can do even more for the state and even the nation than he could ever have done as chief justice. He could be a voice in the wilderness, a call to return from the brink of destruction. He has been prepared in trials by fire to go on our behalf and stand for so much more than a wall or Trump or any other important issue. He’ll be there to be your voice for what this country was meant to be. The choice is so clear. Vote Roy Moore Sept. 26.

Win Johnson, a Montgomery attorney, was senior staff attorney for Roy Moore during his first term as chief justice and was the legal director of the Administrative Office of Courts under the directorship of Rich Hobson and during Moore’s second term as chief justice. He’s written a book about the 1994 chief justice election between Perry Hooper, Sr., and Sonny Hornsby called “Courting Votes in Alabama.”