Religion and Constitution

hopefully it won't be an empty promise when i say that i'll be coming back to this Alabama Chief Justice Roy S. Moore's 10 Commandments stone several times in the coming weeks. of further hope, we can stir up some discussion and counter-rhetoric directed to my arguments.
First, a bit from the Times:

They came streaming in from all directions, wearing their crosses and Confederate T-shirts, carrying dog-eared bibles and bottles of water and enough Power Bars to outlast a siege.

One man even walked from Texas, 20 miles a day, in a frock.

Their mission: to protect the rock, Roy's rock.

Their morale: high and rising.

Today is the deadline for Chief Justice Roy S. Moore of Alabama to remove the 5,280-pound monument of the Ten Commandments he installed in the lobby of the state supreme court.

But the rock ain't moving.

Despite threats of having his state fined $5,000 a day and being held in contempt of court, Justice Moore vowed to disobey a federal court order that begins at midnight.

This afternoon, the United States Supreme Court refused to block the removal of the Ten Commandments monument.

"If they want to get the Commandments," Justice Moore said in a statement today, "they're going to have to get me first."

I listened to the Judge's first press conference a few days ago on CNN- noting his utter lack of a legal defense. Rather, it was an attack on the federal judge that ordered the statue removed. I am sure Moore has offered a legal defense in his brief--I'll try to find that before addressing the issue head on. For now, just wanted to get the ball rolling.
I welcome comments on readers' initial positions on this.
Apart from legal considerations- here's a question: Is it right (in whatever sense you want to take that term) for the Judge to treat the issue as he is? Perhaps further, how is the Judge treating this issue? Because he has refused the court order to remove the statue, I regard his defiant position as stepping away from the legal world and into a contentious political/sociological relm. What do you think?