Nation - Kentucky 2 counties still want Ten Commandments displays

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A lawyer representing two Kentucky counties barred from hanging Ten Commandments displays in their courthouses said he will attempt to put the issue back before the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan comes after appeals courts allowed a similar display in two other Kentucky counties. The American Civil Liberties Union has declined to appeal those rulings to the high court. Attorney Matthew Staver with the Virginia-based Liberty Counsel said he plans to appeal a 2005 case involving McCreary and Pulaski counties. Staver told The Courier-Journal that the Supreme Court has shifted since the ruling, with the more conservative Justice Samuel Alito replacing Sandra Day O'Connor. "They're counting votes as 5-4 against them," Staver said of the ACLU's decision not to appeal the other cases outside of McCreary and Pulaski. "It's pretty clear to everyone" that the Supreme Court has shifted, he said. The lawsuits involve a display that has appeared in county courthouses in Kentucky and other states called the "Foundations of American Law and Government," which includes the Ten Commandments along with the U.S. Constitution, the Magna Carta and other documents. The Supreme Court said in its ruling against McCreary and Pulaski counties' displays that officials had earlier posted stand-alone displays of the Ten Commandments and had made clear statements of their intention to promote religion on government property. The high court ruled in the 2005 case that the Foundations display itself might be valid in the right context, such as if the motive were to provide historical education rather than religious propaganda. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals later in 2005 allowed Mercer County to retain its Foundations display because there was no public record indicating county officials there had a religious motivation. A similar ruling from the appeals court allowed the display in Grayson County earlier this year. The ACLU did not appeal either of those cases. A First Amendment expert said they doubted the Supreme Court, even with new members, would take a case so similar to the 2005 one. "I think (the justices have) said what they want to say," said Charles Haynes, senior scholar with the First Amendment Center, a national group tracking cases involving freedom of expression. "Once a precedent has been set and the justices have outlined the ground rules on how to deal with the Ten Commandments in government spaces, I think they're unlikely to revisit that absent some conflict in the appeals courts," such as one circuit allowing a practice that another forbids. Published: Fri, Aug 20, 2010

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