It was 24 years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court ordered stand-alone displays of the Ten Commandments taken down from public school classrooms across the nation.  Now the court is being asked to revisit the issue by the same state where the landmark Stone v. Graham ruling originated -- Kentucky.  On June 22, Liberty Counsel, a public interest law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Kentucky case in order to resolve a conflict among the federal circuit courts over the question of the constitutionality of public displays of the Ten Commandments.          

At issue are Harlan County schools and McCreary and Pulaski County courthouses which displayed the Ten Commandments along with other historical documents until they were ordered down by a federal judge in 2001. In a related case, U.S. District Judge Karl Forester ruled on Jan. 22, 2003 that Mercer County’s Ten Commandments display "clearly has a legitimate secular purpose of. . . acknowledging the historical influence of the Commandments on the development of this country's laws.”

However, 12 months later, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals banned nearly identical Ten Commandment displays from Harlan, McCreary and Pulaski counties -- a clear conflict with four other federal circuit courts, which have upheld similar displays like the one in Mercer County. The court charged that posting the Ten Commandments on public property constitutes an establishment of religion.                                                           

Mat Staver, President of Liberty Counsel, has been anxious to take this case to the nation’s highest court.  “The lower federal courts are in a hopeless morass of confusion on the issue of the constitutionality of the Ten Commandments,” Staver said.  “We are hopeful that the Supreme Court will accept this case and uphold the constitutionality of these displays.”                                                                                                                                   

There have been 24 legal challenges to public displays of the Ten Commandments since 1999.  The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear similar Ten Commandment cases four times since 2001 but the prospects of the court taking this case are better since there is a clear conflict in the federal courts.                                                                                         

“It is time for the United States Supreme Court to uphold the constitutionality of a display containing the Ten Commandments,” Staver said.  “Our history is replete with references to the Ten Commandments. There is no question that the Ten Commandments played a significant role in the origin of American law and government and that they may be constitutionally displayed for their historical significance.”