Acting Chief Justice Says Moore Should Pay For Monument's Removal - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

November 18, 6:43 p.m.

Acting Chief Justice Says Moore Should Pay For Monument's Removal

Acting Chief Justice Houston Acting Chief Justice Houston

Acting Chief Justice Gorman Houston says former Chief Justice Roy Moore should repay the state the seven thousand dollars it cost to move Moore's Ten Commandments monument into a storage room.

Moore disagrees, saying it was Houston who cost the state unnecessary expense by being overly anxious to remove the five thousand 300 pound-granite monument from public view.

Houston said at a news conference on Tuesday that Moore should pay for moving the monument about 50 feet from the rotunda into a first floor storage room. Houston says Moore had agreed to pay costs of moving the monument in and out of the building when he had it installed two years ago.

But in a statement, Moore says it was Houston's actions that cost taxpayers what Moore called an unnecessary expense. He says Houston did not consult with all the associate justices when he briefly had a black partition placed in front of the marker.