Voters, Not Judges, Will Determine Fate of Commandments Monument
by Allie Martin
August 15, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Idaho's highest court has ruled that voters in the state's capital will be able to decide whether they want a Ten Commandments monument in a public park. Two years ago a Ten Commandments monument was taken out of Julia Davis Park in Boise and moved to a church. (See photos of the monument's removal.) Several members of the City Council said the monument violated the so-called "separation of church and state." Supporters of the monument, led by a group known as the Keep the Commandments Coalition, submitted 19,000 signatures of registered voters seeking to put the issue on the ballot, but the City Council refused the request.
A lower court sided with the Council, and that ruling was appealed. As Brandi Swindell of the Keep the Commandments Coalition says, the Idaho Supreme Court has now reversed that ruling in a 4-1 decision. Swindell says the ruling is more than a victory for just her group.
"It is vindication for the good citizens of Boise and for the state of Idaho," she says. "But more importantly, this has incredible national significance because this is a huge win for democracy, a huge win for voters' rights, [and] a huge win for religious freedom and religious liberty."
According to a press release from the Coalition, a voter referendum on the matter was all it had requested from the beginning of the controversy. The group is confident the monument poses no constitutional problem, pointing out the Decalogue can be found in four different places in the U.S. Supreme Court building.
According to Swindell, the ruling from the Idaho Supreme Court breaks new ground on a national scale.
"As far as we can tell, this is the very first voter initiative that will go to the ballot in which the people will vote on the public posting of the Ten Commandments," she says -- adding that the group's success has attracted others' attention. "I've already been in discussions with national leaders in Washington, DC, and we are strategizing on how what we have done in Boise, Idaho, can be implemented in cities and communities around the nation."
She says the Coalition is hopeful other cities will follow their lead and hold similar initiatives. The Boise initiative should be on the November ballot.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
