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Monday August 16, 2010


ACLU again Refuses to Ask U.S. Supreme Court to Review Ten Commandments Case

CINCINNATI, Ohio, August 16, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The ACLU has allowed the time to expire without filing a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court requesting review of the Ten Commandments case in ACLU v. Grayson County, Kentucky. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which upheld the Ten Commandments in the “Foundations of American Law and Government Display,” now stands.

Since 2005, this is the fourth time the ACLU has lost a Ten Commandments case and refused to ask the Supreme Court to review the matter.

Located on the second floor of the Grayson County, Kentucky, courthouse, the “Foundations of American Law and Government Display” includes the Ten Commandments, Magna Carta, Mayflower Compact, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, Star-Spangled Banner, National Motto, and a picture of Lady Justice, with an explanation of the significance of each. The purpose of the display is educational and is intended to reflect a sampling of documents that played a significant role in the development of the legal and governmental system of the United States.

The case began in 2002 when the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Grayson County and a federal judge ruled against the display. Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law, presented the winning oral argument on behalf of Grayson County in April 2009 at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The display is identical to the displays at issue in the ACLU’s lawsuits against McCreary and Pulaski Counties in Kentucky, which Staver argued at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005. Also in 2005, this same Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the same Ten Commandments display in Mercer County, KY, which Liberty Counsel also defended. The Sixth Circuit governs Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and Michigan. Notwithstanding this identical and controlling precedent, the federal judge entered a permanent injunction against the Grayson County display.

The ACLU chose not to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case, and now the time has expired to make such a request. The Foundations Display has not been reposted in the Grayson County Courthouse.

Commenting on the case, Staver said: “We are pleased that this case is now closed and that the ‘Foundations of American Law and Government Display’ will now include the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are part of the fabric of our country and helped shape the law. It defies common sense to remove a recognized symbol of law from a court of law. The ACLU might not like our history and might run from it, but the fact remains that the Ten Commandments shaped our laws and may be displayed in a court of law.”

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