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Tweet this storyThe Ten Commandments are under attack from the American Civil Liberties Union yet again – this time in Kentucky.
The Liberty Counsel is fighting back. The counsel filed a brief at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in defense of the Foundations of American Law and Government display, which includes the Ten Commandments. Liberty Counsel represents McCreary and Pulaski Counties in Kentucky.
Noteworthy is the fact that these are the same cases Liberty Counsel argued at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. The cases returned to the trial court following the Supreme Court’s decision, since the High Court only ruled on the preliminary injunction.
“The ACLU’s Ten Commandments clearinghouse agenda will hit rough waters when the case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court," said Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law. The tide has turned at the High Court.
"Since 2005 the ACLU has lost three consecutive Ten Commandments cases at the appellate court level," Staver continued. "They have refused to ask the Supreme Court to take these cases, because they know that Court is no longer hostile to the Ten Commandments. Anyone with a little background in the history of America knows that the classic example of the rule of law is at home in a court of law.”
The ACLU initially filed suit in 1999 against the “Foundations of American Law and Government” display, which contained the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Charta, the Star-Spangled Banner, the National Motto, the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution, and a picture of Lady Justice.
In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court heard the McCreary County v. ACLU case, along with a Texas case, and issued split decisions on the Ten Commandments. In the Texas case of Van Orden v. Perry, the Court upheld a Ten Commandments monument that was on the state capital grounds without any controversy for about 40 years. In the Kentucky case, the Court ruled that the prior actions of the county officials, when they erected a stand-alone display of the Ten Commandments, indicated the county officials had a predominately religious purpose in erecting the displays.
Since that opinion was released, however, the composition of the Court has changed. Justices Roberts and Alito have replaced Justices Rehnquist and O’Connor. It is likely that a different result will be reached if the McCreary case reaches the High Court again, according to the Liberty Counsel. Moreover, since the 2005 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the exact same Foundations of American Law and Government display. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld the same display. In both cases Liberty Counsel represented the government agencies.
Jennifer LeClaire is the editor of The Voice magazine and author of "Doubtless: Faith that Overcomes the World." You can also visit her online at www.jenniferleclaire.org.
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