Ten Commandments may be OK after all
A recent article on World Net Daily, a Web-based news service, has given County Executive Kenneth Rogers reason to believe the current exhibit of the Ten Commandments in the County Administration Building, in the context of an historical display, is on more solid ground legally than some may have thought.
An American Civil Liberties Union suit to have a display of the Ten Commandments removed from a Kentucky courthouse was recently dismissed in a Lexington, Ky., federal court with a ruling that stated, in part, “The primary purpose of the display is not to endorse religion as a matter of law.”
The exhibit reportedly includes the Ten Commandments as part of a harmonious historic display featuring various documents of widely accepted historical significance, including the Mayflower Compact, the Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, much like the display here. It gives some credence to the effectiveness of displaying the document in this manner, at least as far as legal issues are concerned.
The opinion, written by U.S. District Court Judge Karl S. Forester, further stated the Mercer County Courthouse display “clearly has a legitimate secular purpose of, including but not limited to, acknowledging the historical influence of the Commandments on the development of this country’s laws.”
Rogers feels the victory is a validation of the county’s current display and its presentation, and he plans to send every member of the county commission a copy of the article in an effort to ease their concerns about a possible lawsuit by Kyle Williams of Woodbury.
“We’re in complete compliance with what the laws and the federal courts have ruled,” said Rogers. “It is constitutional to hang them and it is a historical document in that setting.”
The American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ, has been very active in defending local governments in these types of cases. It is now involved in more than 15 cases around the country and represented Mercer County in this case.
Francis J. Manion, senior counsel for the ACLJ was quoted in the article, stating the ruling was a victory against the ACLU.
“This is a tremendous affirmation that the legal attack aimed at removing the Ten Commandments from places like the Mercer County Courthouse is legally flawed and without merit,” Manion said.