WASHINGTON — A former Alabama chief justice whose removal for placing a monument to the Ten Commandments in his courthouse was celebrated by Jewish groups won the Republican primary in a bid to get his old job back.  

Roy Moore’s career as a judge came to an end in 2003, when a panel removed him for disobeying a federal court order to remove the monument.

A number of Jewish groups, who had strongly opposed the monument, greeted his removal with approval, in part because Moore had cast the matter so emphatically as a Christian one.

Moore’s critics believed his career as an elected official to be over when he was crushed in 2006 in the GOP primary for the state’s governor.

Moore scored just over 50 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, obviating the need for a runoff.

Moore thanked God for the victory. The Montgomery Advertiser quoted him as saying he would not return the monument, but that he backs legislation under consideration that would allow such displays.

“I will always acknowledge God,” Moore said, according to the Advertiser.

He now faces Harry Lyon, a lawyer, who is the Democratic nominee.