Kentucky Ten Commandments Ruling Reflects 'Judicial Hostility,' Attorney Says
by Fred Jackson
December 19, 2003
(AgapePress) - The head of a Christian legal group is denouncing Thursday's federal appeals court decision against Ten Commandments display in Kentucky.A federal appeals court has ruled that three Kentucky counties violated the Constitution by posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings, even though the religious laws were accompanied by other historical documents. McCreary and Pulaski County officials hung framed copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses and later added other documents, such as the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence, after the display was challenged. Harlan County had similar displays in its schools.
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman's 2001 order to remove the displays from public view.
Coffman said in her ruling that the purpose of displaying the Ten Commandments was "religious in nature." She said the fact that the displays began with just the Ten Commandments and only later added the other documents "bolstered the reasonable observer's perception of the state endorsement of religion."
But Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association Center for Law and Policy describes this latest ruling as "one more decision that confirms the pervasive judicial hostility toward religion, Christianity in particular."
In finding the historical displays unconstitutional, the appeals court said "a reasonable observer of the displays cannot connect the Ten Commandments with a unifying historical or cultural theme that is also secular."
Brian Fahling, an attorney with the AFA Law Center, says to conclude as it did, the court's "reasonable observer" must have been patterned after French President Jacques Chirac who recently called secularism a "pillar of [the French] Constitution."
The original lawsuits were brought by seven individuals and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
