MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The former judge ousted for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument has won his old job back as Alabama's chief justice.

Republican Roy Moore defeated Democrat Bob Vance. With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Moore had 52 percent of the vote compared with Vance's 48 percent.

Moore became known as "Alabama's Ten Commandments judge" in 1995 when the ACLU sued him to remove a homemade plaque of the Ten Commandments from the lobby of the state judicial building. The Alabama Supreme Court threw out the suit, but the legal battle helped him win the race for chief justice in 2000.

A state court for judges kicked him out of office three years later when he refused to abide by a federal judge's order to remove the monument.

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