Legal Group Hopes Proposal Ends Local Ten Commandments Battles
by Bill Fancher and Jenni Parker
March 19, 2004
(AgapePress) - As local governments wrestle with civil liberties organizations, atheist groups and individuals over Ten Commandments monuments and other displays of faith in the public square, one group is hoping to settle the matter at the state level -- in every state -- once and for all.The Duluth City Council in Minnesota recently voted 5-4 to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the grounds of City Hall, where it has stood since 1957. But according to an Associated Press report, the fight may not be over, since Duluth's mayor says he has been advised that a petition to override the vote is being circulated.
The original demand to remove the seven-foot granite monument came from a lawsuit filed by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union. Although supporters of the Ten Commandments display rallied in front of City Hall before the city council's vote, and eight speakers gave testimony before the council in favor of keeping the monument, in the end the majority's fear of litigation prevailed. The council passed a resolution to remove the monument rather than risk an unsuccessful court fight costing the city several thousands of dollars.
AP reports that after the last wavering council member stated that he would not change his vote, Mayor Herb Bergson signed the resolution. But he says the petition being floated in favor of keeping the monument could force the city to "have a referendum on this issue." Hence, the city can probably look forward to more debate and more expense over the issue in the coming months.
Endless ACLU Challenges
Such fights have been happening in cities, counties, and municipalities all over the United States in recent years as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and similar organizations have gone on the attack against symbols of faith in the public square.
The ACLU has figured in several prominent cases, including the fight against former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, which resulted in the forced removal of a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama judicial building, and Moore's removal from office for refusing to remove the monument. And the ACLU brought the original suits in another case that ended with a federal judge ruling that three Kentucky counties had violated the Constitution by posting the Ten Commandments in public buildings, even though the religious laws were accompanied by other historical documents. Also, it was an ACLU suit that forced Barrow County, Georgia, to fight in court for the right to retain a Ten Commandments display on a wall of a county courthouse.
There are many more such cases, over with and ongoing. In fact, the ACLU has been so active in pursuing the suppression of the Ten Commandments and other Christian symbols of faith around the U.S. that one public official, City Councilman Vernon Robinson of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, coined a new nickname for the organization -- the "Anti-Christian Litigating Unit."
A Legal Pre-Emptive Strike
But one Atlanta legal organization has been organizing a state-by-state project that it hopes will help resolve the many controversies plaguing religious freedom advocates and setting off "separation of Church and State" debates all over the U.S.
The Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) is spearheading the effort -- called the American Religious and Legal Heritage Protection Project -- and their hope is that it will result in the mandatory display of the Ten Commandments in state buildings throughout the country. Now the SLF's unique project has officially launched, and already several states are interested.
SLF spokesman Todd Young says the unorthodox effort has successfully "kicked off" in the SLF's home state of Georgia, and the foundation is hoping that the project will make the same steady progress nationwide. When SLF rolled out the project, Young explains, the group immediately found some very strong advocates in the Georgia state legislature "for the proposal to place the Ten Commandments in a historical and religious context -- a very specific context -- and authorize that for placement in every courthouse in the State of Georgia."
Encouraged by the initial support, SLF aims to implement the proposal state-by-state throughout the country. Young says having the states mandate the displays will take the burden off local governments, which do not have the resources to fight court challenges.
Lawmakers in Maryland and Ohio are already interested in the American Religious and Legal Heritage Protection Project, and SLF is confident that its proposal will stand up to legal scrutiny. "We believe that this particular proposal will survive court challenge, " Young says, "and it's inevitably going to be challenged by the ACLU and others."
As the Georgia General Assembly moves the SLF-inspired legislation to a vote on the House floor, the foundation is praising the state House Rules Committee for moving three bills related to public display of the Ten Commandments along to the floor for votes as "a common sense approach to the public support and constitutionality of the display of important historical documents." Recent national surveys indicate that 60 to 70 percent of the American people support the placement of the Ten Commandments in public forums such as courthouses.
