Courts, Governors Siding with Ten Commandments Displays
by Allie Martin
April 28, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A Christian attorney says he's confident that public displays of the Ten Commandments will continue to be more acceptable in the legal arena. Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a bill permitting the display of God's sacred laws in public buildings. And the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a Ten Commandments display in Elkhart County, Indiana v. Brooks. Mat Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel, says courts are approving historic rulings when it comes to the public display of the Ten Commandments.
Mat Staver | |
"It not only is certainly upholding the Ten Commandments in these huge victories, one after another, but it is also a major shift in the court interpretation in the church-state understanding to be more close to the original understanding of the First Amendment," Staver offers. "We literally are witnessing a major change in the process. It's been a long time in coming." Earlier this month, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher also signed a bill that would place a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds. And last week, the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 19-5 to uphold the "Foundations of American Law and Government" display at a Kentucky courthouse. In addition, a federal district court in Ohio -- as well as the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals -- upheld stand-alone Ten Commandments displays.
Staver says cases like these prove that persistence pays off. "As Christians and people of faith, we've got to show up, whether it's in the classroom or the courtroom," the attorney says. "And when we do -- when we persist and we continue to make our case over time -- we can make a difference. And I think we are seeing it right now."
The Liberty Counsel president says "the tide is turning" against the ACLU's war on the Ten Commandments. Both the courts and history, he says, are working against that group's efforts to eliminate God's Word from the public arena.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
