Staver Predicts SCOTUS 10C Hearing's Broad Impact
by Allie Martin and Jenni Parker
October 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - The announcement earlier this month that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases involving the public display of the Ten Commandments has resulted in a media blitz. Less than 24 hours after the court's decision to review Ten Commandments cases from Texas and Kentucky, more than 600 articles had appeared in print media alone.Mat Staver is president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, the pro-family litigation and policy organization that is handling both cases. He says these cases will affect not only every display of the biblical commandments in the United States, but countless other Establishment Clause controversies and court disputes as well.
Mat Staver | |
"This case will have a wide, sweeping effect, potentially, on anything from 'In God We Trust' to our Pledge of Allegiance to the Ten Commandments to other church-state issues," Staver says. "So it will have a major impact on the First Amendment interpretation, not only here in the Ten Commandments case but in many other applications as well."The head of Liberty Counsel says if the American Civil Liberties Union has its way, historical revision rather than the rule of law would govern the land. That is why he feels history is at stake in these two important cases, and why it is so significant that the Supreme Court has agreed to review them.
The high court justices have been asked not only to look at the Ten Commandments issue and uphold the Ten Commandments display, Staver says, but also "to revisit how the Supreme Court has approached the First Amendment Establishment Clause, or the church-state provision."
This is the first time in decades, the litigation expert notes, that the Supreme Court of the United States "has agreed to accept that particular issue as well." Therefore, he points out, when the ruling comes down, it can be expected to have a broad effect on cases -- past, present and future -- involving the separation of church and state.
Staver feels the court's decision to hear the two cases involving the display of the Ten Commandments is long overdue. The Liberty Counsel president says his legal team's first brief in the matter is due after Thanksgiving, and oral arguments will be set for some time in February.
