"Ten Commandments Judge" Roy Moore forming presidential committee
Updated 3:55 p.m. Eastern Time
Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore today announced that he is forming a presidential committee ahead of a potential 2012 presidential run.
In a statement explaining his decision, the conservative Christian said, "Basic institutions of family, faith, and freedom are under assault, and our leadership is divided by petty party politics and a special interest agenda."
Moore, a Republican, lost his job as Alabama Supreme Court chief justice in 2003 after erecting and refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments outside the state's courthouse.
Moore said today he was "concerned about the destruction of the family and marriage," adding that he supports the Defense of Marriage Act and opposes same-sex marriage. Speaking of the repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, he said, "I believe that homosexuality is incompatible with the military mission and will only serve to further weaken our defense capability. "
Moore also criticized "[g]overnment bureaucracy" and the tax system, writing: "Federal government is out of control! I believe we need to return to a smaller federal government and increased right of states to govern its citizens." He complained that the United States is at risk because lawmakers often don't adhere to the Constitution.
In an interview with the Des Moines Register today, Moore said he should not have been removed from the bench in 2003, stating, "The Constitution doesn't forbid the acknowledgment of God and any judge that says that is wrong constitutionally."
Moore is in the middle of a week-long tour of Iowa, the key early voting state where social conservatives play a prominent role in deciding who wins the caucuses. An aide told CBS News in Marchthat he also plans to travel to other key early states, including Nevada, South Carolina and New Hampshire.
The former chief justice is one of many socially-conservative potential 2012 presidential candidates, including former Sen. Rick Santorum, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Gov. Sarah Palin, Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain. Huckabee was the surprise winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2008 thanks to the prevalence of social conservatives among the GOP electorate there.
A West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, Moore has twice lost GOP gubernatorial primaries in Alabama, in 2006 and 2010.
