MONTGOMERY, Ala. (ABP) -- A group of supporters of ousted Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore asked President Bush to withdraw a nominee for a federal judgeship because of his role in Moore's removal.

A group of Alabama pastors and an independent Baptist leader asked Jan. 23 that Bush withdraw the name of Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor for appointment to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor is one of a handful of Bush's most conservative nominees to federal courts whose nomination has faced strong opposition in the Senate.

Moore was removed from his office last year for defying a federal court's order to remove a Ten Commandments monument that he unilaterally placed in the state judicial building's rotunda. Pryor, who previously had supported Moore's Ten Commandments cause, opposed Moore's decision to disobey the court order.

Pryor incurred further wrath from Moore supporters when he acted as the prosecutor in the trial before a special state judicial-ethics court that ended in Moore's ouster.

The group was led by Frank Raddish of the Washington-based Capitol Hill Independent Baptist Ministries. In a press conference on the steps of the Alabama Capitol, Raddish and the other pastors asked for the state's congressional delegation to withdraw their support for Pryor, according to the Associated Press.

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