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THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
LEGAL DEVELOPMENTS: YEAR 2003
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Legal challenges and court decisions:
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2003-JAN-13: FL: Crestview city council votes to not post the
Decalogue: For the second time in seven months, the city council
voted to not post the Decalogue on city property. However, the vote was
3 to 2, so a single change in a future vote could reverse the decision. Several
local citizens pleaded with the Council to erect the display, even
though Americans United threatened a lawsuit. Councilman Sam Hayes said
that he may change his vote if local churches agree to pay the legal
cost of defending the city in court. He said: "I'm all for the Ten
Commandments. I don't want to put the burden of higher taxes on the
ordinary citizens. We don't have the money. To raise the money, we have
to raise taxes." He also expressed concern that members of other
religions might wish to display similar materials beside the Ten
Commandments. All five councilpersons are up for re-election in March.
Some speakers at the meeting threatened to retaliate in the polls
against any council members who voted against the proposal. Council
President Kathleen Bowman said: "We're turning our back on God." |
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2003-JUN-??: GA: Court declares symbolic Ten Commandments
constitutional: The 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals,
which had declared Judge Moore's 2.5 ton granite monument of the Ten
Commandments unconstitutional, earlier ruled that Richmond County,
GA, can retain a symbol representing the Decalogue on their county seal.
The reason was that the badge did not include the actual text of the Ten
Commandments. Displaying the simple outline of a pair of tablets, or
showing tablets with the numbers I to X (as was shown in the Cecil B.
DeMille move "Ten Commandments") is constitutional. 2 |
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2003-JUN-26: PA: Court allows Ten Commandment to remain on
display: The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a
Decalogue plaque could remain on the front facade of the Chester County
Courthouse in West Chester, PA. The local Religious Education Council
had donated the plaque in 1920. It includes the text of the Ten
Commandments with quotations from Exodus, Deuteronomy and Mathew.
According to AANEWS: "Writing for the court, Judge Becker noted that
the display was situated under a portico of columns so that a casual
passerby would see only the words 'The Commandments.' He quoted one
County Commissioner who argued that this observer ' would not know
whether they're the commandments of the Commissioners, the President
Judge (sic) or of Moses.' A visitor would have to 'climb the steps
leading to the historic entrance' in order to view the full text."
The main entrance to the Courthouse has moved some 70 feet away from the
plaque since 1920. The court also noted that no government has expended
funds to preserve the plaque, and that nobody had complained for the
past 83 years about its presence. They ruled that the plaque did not
convey to a "reasonable observer" any endorsement of religion by
the government. They decided that an "observer" would conclude
that the county did not actively maintain the plaque, and would consider
the display as being related to local history. Stanley Presser of the
American Civil Liberties Union disagreed. He pointed out that
this decision conflicts with those by three other U.S. Circuit courts --
a problem which can only be resolved by a definitive ruling of the
U.S. Supreme Court. Presser said: "The plaque speaks for itself, day
in and day out, proclaiming an observance and belief in God and in a
particular [form] of that deity." 2 |
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2003-JUL-18: AZ: ACLU asks for removal of monument: The
Fraternal Order of Eagles placed a Ten Commandments monument in
Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza in Phoenix, AZ in 1956. This is a mall
adjacent to the state capitol, which is controlled by the Arizona state
government. The American Civil Liberties Union has asked that the
monument be removed because its presence is unconstitutional. Eleanor
Eisenberg, executive director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union is
reported as saying: "I think the law is pretty clear and quite
recent. Posting the Ten Commandments is an endorsement of specific
religions." She said that the local ACLU chapter receives three or
four calls a year objecting to the monument. There are a number of
secular monuments in the Plaza, but the monument containing Ten
Commandments, and another monument commemorating the genocide of
Armenian Christians by the government of Turkey early in the 20th
century are the only ones with a religious message. Senator Mark
Anderson, (R-Mesa), wants to keep the monument where it is because he
believes the text forms the basis of the American legal system.
Representative Andy Biggs, (R-Gilbert) said: "It seems like the ACLU
wants to deny the fundamental principles of our American heritage. I
find it offensive that the ACLU continually tries to strip our society
of any reference to religious worship of any kind." The latter
comment appears to be a misunderstanding of the ACLU position. They
would have no objection if the monument were simply removed to private
property, perhaps on the grounds of a church. 3 The
Center for Arizona Policy and a number of other conservative
Christian groups organized a prayer rally at the monument. |
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2003-JUL-25: KS: Municipal government decides to relocate Ten
Commandments monument: The Fraternal Order of Eagles donated
a Decalogue monument to the Unified government of Wyandotte County
and Kansas City in the early 1960s. After the American Civil
Liberties Union notified the government that it intended to launch a
lawsuit to force removal of the monument, the government decided to
relocate it about 150 feet across the street onto the property of St.
Mary's-St. Anthony's Catholic Church. 4 |
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2003-SEP-18: IA: Fundamentalist Christian group wants Decalogue
display: The Iowa Family Policy Center organized a
demonstration of "close to 200 people" at the Iowa Supreme
Court building in Des Moines. They urged the court to accept what
they view to be a cultural display of historic legal documents. Included
are the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, Bill of
Rights, Star-spangled Banner, the preamble to the Iowa
Constitution and the Ten Commandments. Court officials
declined the offer, believing that posting the Decalogue could be
interpreted as an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by the state.
It could trigger a lawsuit. 5 On the IowaChannel
web site, an informal poll of 3,055 visitors showed that 71% favored the
posting of the Ten Commandments; 27% were opposed. |
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2003-SEP: AL: State Senate passes bill: The Alabama
Senate has approved a proposed amendment to the state constitution that
would permit the display of the Ten Commandments in government
buildings. The vote was 25-0, even though the amendment would be
clearly unconstitutional because it violates the first amendment of the
U.S. Constitution. The House will now consider the legislation.
6 |
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2003-SEP: MT: Monument removed: A Ten Commandments monument
which was located in front of the Custer County Courthouse in Miles
City, Montana, has been removed, following a six year legal battle.
County Commissioner Duane Mathison said: "We had no choice. They had
to be removed." 6 |
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2003-OCT-1: NC: Counter-demonstration scheduled: Wayne Aiken,
North Carolina State Director for American Atheists led a
demonstration in Raleigh NC to counter the
"Save the Commandments" Caravan rallies at the state capitol. He said: "The
rally is completely misnamed. This isn't so much about the Ten
Commandments per se, it's about using government power and force to
spread sectarian religion. When Commandments supporters attack
church-state separation, they're really attacking religious freedom
itself. They only beliefs they're about are their own, and they would
eagerly enforce them on others." He said that such a philosophy
masquerading under a government "right to acknowledge God" is
really "Anti-American in the extreme, and closer to the philosophy of
Osama bin Laden than Thomas Jefferson."
American Atheists President, Ellen Johnson, said: "There are over
350,000 mosques, churches, temples, synagogues and other 'houses of
worship' in this country, and there is plenty of private land where
religious people can display their symbols and worship any deity they
choose. This issue is about using government resources to promote
religion in general, and often a specific sectarian creed in
particular. Doing that insults and marginalizes every Atheist and other
nonbeliever in the country." Because the disputes appear to entirely
center around Christian documents, one might extend the insults and
marginalization to include everyone in the country who is neither a
Jew, Christian nor Muslim. 6 |
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2003-OCT-6: DC: Demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court
building: On the first day of the court's new term, religious
demonstrators erected a tall wooden cross in front of the Supreme Court
building. They set up six wooden coffins, each labeled with the name of
a past court ruling, such as the Roe v. Wade and the Lawrence
v. Texas decisions in 1973 and 2003. The Associated Press estimated that 200
demonstrators were present. 7 |
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2003-DEC: GA: Barrow County lawsuit: Lawyers for the
County asked that a lawsuit be stayed because the name of the plaintiff
has not been made public. The American Civil Liberties Union
initiated the case on 2003-SEP-16 in the name of a John Doe. The issue
involves a framed copy of the Ten Commandments which hangs in a
breezeway at the Barrow Country Courthouse. 8 |
Related essays on this site
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"Crestview council says no to Ten Commandments, but may reconsider,"
Associated Press, 2003-JAN-14. Online at the Herald Tribune newspaper,
Sarasota FL, at:
http://www.heraldtribune.com/
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"On to the Supreme Court? Moore announces appeal in Ten Commandments
case as lower courts divide," AA News, 2003-JUL-3.
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Michael Clancy, "ACLU seeks religion-free Bolin Plaza," The Arizona
Republic, 2003-JUL-18, at:
http://www.azcentral.com/
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"Ten Commandments to be moved," Associated Press, 2003-JUL-25, at:
http://www.ljworld.com/
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"Group Wants Ten Commandments In State Building. Close To 200 People
Rally In Support Of Display," The Iowa Channel, 2003-SEP-18, at:
http://www.theiowachannel.com
- AANews, 2003-SEP-30.
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"Supreme Court sessions starts with protest," Associated Press,
2003-OCT-6, at:
http://www.cnn.com/
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Sheri Kasprzak, "Barrow asks to delay suit," Gwinnett Daily Post,
2003-DEC-??, at:
http://208.151.54.27/
Copyright © 2003 & 2004 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance
Originally written: 2003-JAN-13
Latest update: 2004-AUG-01
Author: B.A. Robinson 
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