‘Ten Commandments Judge’ Wraps Up Four-Day Swing Through Carolinas

Roy Moore, the former Alabama chief justice who was removed from office almost a decade ago for refusing to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the state courthouse, wrapped up a four-day tour of the Carolinas earlier today with a speech at a luncheon in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

Moore, who established a presidential exploratory committee last month and has already spent a considerable amount of time in Iowa, is seriously considering entering the 2012 Republican presidential sweepstakes.

A spokesman for his exploratory committee said earlier this year that Moore’s long-shot candidacy will focus on repealing President Obama’s health care reform package, replacing the progressive income tax with a flat tax, and bringing “commonsense solutions” to the issues of immigration and border control.

Moore’s four-day swing through the Carolinas included stops in Charleston, Aiken, Myrtle Beach, Greenville and Spartanburg.

During his remarks at the Lincoln Cultural Center luncheon, the 64-year-old former jurist focused on issues of importance to social conservatives, including illegal immigration.

“We could fix our border problem in a matter of weeks with the right leadership,” he said.

Moore, who had turned down overtures from the Constitution Party to head its ticket in the 2004 presidential election, ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for governor of Alabama in 2006 and 2010, polling a third of the vote against incumbent Bob Riley in 2006, and garnering 19% of the vote while finishing fourth in last year‘s crowded Republican primary.

Moore’s refusal to remove a four-foot tall, 5,280-pound granite sculpture of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse in 2001 sparked a national controversy, leading to his removal from office and making him a hero to many on the Religious Right.