Montgomery, Ala. ? Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s ouster over his monument to the Ten Commandments could elevate him as a national spokesman in a growing movement to put religious displays back into public settings.

A state judicial ethics panel threw him off the bench Thursday after he repeatedly insisted he would not obey a federal judge’s order to move a 2 1/2-ton block of granite from the courthouse rotunda.

Moore said he planned to continue the fight that has made him a darling of fellow conservative Christians.

“I consider myself a man who has upheld his oath and done what I had to do to keep the Constitution of Alabama, the Constitution of the United States as the rule of law,” Moore said Friday on NBC’s “Today” show.

Moore had three years remaining on his six-year term. One of his lawyers, former Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts, said he expected to appeal the decision to the Alabama Supreme Court.

Moore also has said he would unveil proposed legislation next week to rein in the power of federal courts.

“You will hear from me again when it comes to the right to acknowledge God,” Moore had told cheering supporters on Thursday, shortly after the ethics panel’s decision.

Gov. Bob Riley said Friday he would not appoint a replacement until Moore had exhausted his appeals.

Hiram Sasser, a lawyer with the Liberty Legal Institute of Plano, Texas, thinks Moore will continue to be an important figure in the fight. Sasser said he believed there were similar cases with a better chance of getting a favorable ruling than the politically charged Alabama case.

“I think a lot of people had taken the idea that this was a lost cause,” Sasser said. “We believe there’s a way to win a Ten Commandments case.”

Sasser said he would encourage Moore to galvanize support by “taking a hard look at our courts.”

The state of Texas had argued that the granite Ten Commandments monument at the state Capitol in Austin was more historical than religious. Unlike the marker Moore installed after he took office in 2001, the Texas monument was at the Capitol for about 40 years before its legality was challenged.

On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the Texas monument was not an unconstitutional attempt to establish state-sponsored religion. The decision upheld a lower court ruling.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he did not believe the Supreme Court had much interest in the Ten Commandments issue. He said one reason was that the facts were different in all cases.

Lynn said he believed the Supreme Court was comfortable with its current position that the Ten Commandments “is inherently religious and can’t be promoted in public places.”