Montgomery, Ala. ? Alabama’s suspended chief justice says he is fighting efforts to have taxpayers pay attorneys fees for the people who sued to remove his Ten Commandments monument from a state courts building.

A federal judge ruled that Chief Justice Roy Moore violated the U.S. Constitution’s ban on government promotion of religion when he placed the 2 1/2-ton granite monument in the rotunda of the state Judicial Building in the middle of the night two years ago. The U.S. Supreme refused this week to hear Moore’s appeal.

Now the plaintiffs in that legal battle plan to ask the federal judge for about $832,000 in fees, said Ayesha Khan, attorney for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the plaintiff groups.

If the judge awards the fees, it would be a blow for a state already struggling with declining revenues and high legal costs in other cases, Moore told The Associated Press.

“I imagine the state would have to pay for it,” Moore said.

He said he was contesting the “outrageous” request and noted that Khan’s group and others have raised money in the name of fighting against the monument.

“Indeed, it’s highly suspect that they should deserve any” fees, he said.

Khan said that Moore should have known all along that the people of Alabama would end up paying the attorneys’ fees.

“We didn’t ask for this case to be brought, Justice Moore did. He knew full well if he put that monument up he would be facing a lawsuit,” she said.

Moore faces an ethics trial set to begin next week. In that trial, the Court of the Judiciary will consider whether to remove Moore from the bench for disobeying the federal judge’s order.