Attorney Hopes Texas Bible Display Ruling Will Be Overturned
by Allie Martin
August 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The head of a religious liberty defense organization says a recent ruling involving a monument outside a Texas courthouse could have far-reaching implications. The case began when a woman, supported by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, claimed she was offended by a memorial display containing an open Bible.Last week a three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth District ruled that a Bible, which has been in place for years as part of a monument in front of Harris County Civil Courthouse in Houston, may not be displayed. The monument was erected in 1956 to honor William S. Mosher, a Christian businessman who supported a local mission for the homeless.
The top part of the monument is a glass-topped case that reads, "Star of Hope Mission, Erected in Loving Memory of Husband and Father, William S. Mosher, A.D., 1956." Within the display is an open Bible, included as a memorial to the faith that motivated Mosher's generosity.
In its ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court majority panelists said the memorial monument was secular when it was built, but that its purpose changed after it was refurbished in the 1990s. The majority argued that, although the display passed constitutional scrutiny formerly, its recent history would compel an observer to construe it as a government establishment of religion on public grounds.
Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Legal Institute, was surprised by the ruling. "It's a bizarre decision that, if it were upheld, would mean that if too many people pray on any monument, it would have to be bulldozed," he says. "That's not the law."
In fact, Shackelford suggests, the ruling actually flies in the face of legal precedent and contradicts a decision in a case that took place in the very same state. "This is Texas that this happened in," he points out, "the same place where the U.S. Supreme Court just last year said a six-foot-tall, three-feet-wide Ten Commandments monument -- that huge monument right outside the State Capitol -- is permissible."
But now, two of the federal judges presiding over this case are saying "that a monument to an individual is not allowed if it has a Bible inside it reflecting that he was generous because of his faith," the LLI attorney laments. "This is very disappointing and absolutely wrong," he says.
The lone dissenter on the panel, Circuit Judge Jerry Smith, expressed a similar sentiment, stating that the panel majority exhibited "an appalling hostility to any hint of religion in public spaces." Shackelford feels that kind of hostility, when expressed by judges, is unlawful -- and he believes a higher court would agree.
"We think that if the U.S. Supreme Court took this case, that this would be reversed," the attorney notes. "And that's something we couldn't say a few years ago," he adds, "so that gives us some understanding that the U.S. Supreme Court is changing and, I think, is improving and is going more back towards the true words of the Constitution."
Shackelford says Liberty Legal Institute is convinced the Harris County Bible case, Staley v. Harris County, would have a much better chance before the U.S. Supreme Court than it would have had even just a few years ago. "Hostility to religion is not the law," he says, "and hopefully this will be overturned."
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
