Washington ? The U.S. Supreme Court refused Wednesday to block a federal judge’s ruling that a Ten Commandments monument be removed from the rotunda of Alabama’s state judicial building in Montgomery.

The one-line order dismissing an emergency appeal from Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore came hours before a midnight deadline set by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson for removing the 4-foot-tall, 5,300-pound statue. If officials do not remove it, the state faces a $5,000-a-day fine for defying the judge’s order.

While the Ten Commandments may be kept on display in an Alabama justice’s private chambers, they must be removed from the public areas of the state courthouse, according to the order issued earlier this month by Thompson.

Moore, who was elected three years ago as Alabama’s chief justice, has defied two rules of modern constitutional law.

The first holds that the government may not promote or endorse religion by prominently displaying religious symbols in public buildings.

The second holds that state officials must obey the commands of federal law.

In his emergency appeal, Moore maintained that a federal judge may not “abridge the right of the people (of Alabama), through their elected representative — the Chief Justice — to acknowledge God as indispensable to the administration of justice. The 10th Amendment reserves to the people of the state of Alabama the right to constitute their state government under God.”

Thompson rejected Moore’s views on religion and the state, saying they “come uncomfortably close to the adoption of … a theocracy.”

About 30 worshippers pray outside the State Judicial Building in Montgomery, Ala. Supporters of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore gathered for a candlelight vigil Wednesday, hoping to convince state and federal leaders that a Ten Commandments monument should not be removed from the building. Instead, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block a ruling that the monument come down.

And the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had rejected Moore’s claim that Alabama state officials could defy the U.S. Constitution, saying that view had been rejected during the 1960s and the struggle about racial integration.

None of the Supreme Court justices signaled a willingness to take up either claim. But the Supreme Court remains free to hear the issue later if Moore appeals a final decision that goes against him.

In 1980, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law that called for posting the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms. The commandments “concern the religious duties of believers,” the court said, and therefore, amount to official promotion of religion.

In 1989, the court also ordered Pittsburgh city officials to remove a holiday season depiction of Christ’s birth from a City Hall building.

Two years ago, the court also let stand a judge’s order that required the city of Elkhart, Ind., to remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from in front of City Hall. All these rulings grew out of the First Amendment’s ban on laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”

Moore, who campaigned in Alabama as the “Ten Commandments Judge,” maintained these decisions were mistaken interpretations of the First Amendment. He said the Ten Commandments depicted “the moral foundation of the law” and reflected “the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men.”