Bush Administration Backs Display of Ten Commandments in Supreme Court Case
The Bush Administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the display of the Ten Commandments on government property on same day an Idaho judge found 11 Christians guilty of obstructing the police from removing a Ten Commandments display in Idaho
The Bush Administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the display of the Ten Commandments on government property on Wednesday, the same day an Idaho judge found 11 Christians guilty of obstructing the police from removing a Ten Commandments display in Idaho when they knelt in prayer around the monument.
The Supreme Court banned posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools in 1980 but has recently agreed to take up a consolidated case examining the posting of framed copies of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky county courthouses and the display of a Ten Commandments monument in a public park in Texas. Liberty Counsel is representing the Kentucky counties in the appeal.
Paul Clement, the Administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, argued Wednesday that the Ten Commandments appear in many locations around the country and even in the court’s own building.
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"Reproductions and representations of the Ten Commandments have been commonly employed across the country to symbolize both the rule of law itself, as well as the role of religion in the development of American law," Clement wrote.
Clement argued that courthouses are different from schools and often have ''historic symbols of law."
Groups opposing the displays, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans for Separation of Church and State, argue they are unconstitutional because it translates to a governmental endorsement of religion.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in February 2005.
11 Found Guilty
Dennis Mansfield, one of the 11 found guilty for willfully obstructing the removal of a Ten Commandments display in Julia Davis Park in Boise, Idaho, said the ruling was “heartbreaking.”
He said the Ten Commandments issue is one worthy of nationwide concern.
“This is not only an east or west coast issue; it is not just a red state or a blue state issue. It is an issue of conscience for all Americans,” he said. "But today's verdict leaves our common historical American memory as if it were unconscious.”
Thirteen protesters knelt around the Ten Commandments display on March 29 hoping to prevent its scheduled removal as ordered by a court. Two pleaded guilty, eight were sentenced Wednesday to 25 hours of community service, while the rest will be sentenced next month.
"We knelt and prayed around the Ten Commandments monument. It was not our intent to be arrested. Our intent was to peacefully stop the illegal removal of the monument,” said Brandi Swindell, one of the defendants.
The group’s defense attorney Scott Summer had argued in court that it was illegal for the city to remove the display and the group could not be prosecuted for protesting an illegal removal of the monument. The court held that they were not prosecuted for protesting but for disobeying police orders to move aside.
Swindell expressed some encouragement in a press release from the Administration’s decision to get involved.
"While my codefendants and I were in court the Bush administration was also in court, the Supreme Court. We want the same thing our President wants; for the courts to allow Ten Commandments monuments to be displayed on public property,” she said.
She added, "It is a disgrace that Boise's mayor and city council would prosecute and punish its citizens, including two grandmothers, for acting on their beliefs and exercising their First Amendment Rights."
Swindell and other protesters have formed the Keep The Commandments Coalition, a group of citizens group backing an initiative to put a new Ten Commandments monument in Julia Davis Park.
The Ten Commandments Monument
The controversy over whether the Ten Commandments could be displayed on government property escalated last year when the Alabama Court of the Judiciary to remove Roy Moore, then an Alabama Justice, from office for defying the federal judge’s order to remove a two-ton Ten Commandments display from his courthouse. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Moore’s appeal to his removal in early October.
That particular Ten Commandments monument is currently being displayed at various locations as part of the "Veterans Faith and Freedom National Tour” sponsored by The American Veterans Standing for God and Country. The tour made a stop by Waco, Texas, on Thursday after beginning this summer in Dayton, Tenn.
According to the group’s Web site, the tour will stop next at First Baptist Church, Pleasant Grove, Al. for a Ten Commandments Rally on Saturday, from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Guest speakers include Judge Moore, and Joe Godfrey, President of the Alabama
Baptist Convention.
