ACLJ Asks Supreme Court to Take Ohio Ten Commandments Case Where Poster in Courtroom of Judge Was Declared Unconstitutional.

WASHINGTON -- The American Center for Law and Justice, specializing in constitutional law, today asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take a case out of Ohio where a poster of the Ten Commandments inside the courtroom of a state judge was declared unconstitutional. Today's filing marks the second case involving the public display of the Commandments that the ACLJ has asked the high court to consider this term.

"This country has a rich history of highlighting documents that serve as the foundation of our legal system - and that includes the Ten Commandments," said Francis J. Manion, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ, which represents Judge DeWeese. "The display in Judge DeWeese's courtroom serves an educational and informational purpose and we're hopeful that the high court in its consideration of this issue will conclude that displays like Judge DeWeese's are not only proper, but constitutional as well."

The ACLJ represents Judge James DeWeese of the Richland County Common Pleas Court in Mansfield, Ohio. The ACLU sued him in 2001 after he displayed two framed posters in his courtroom - the Ten Commandments and the Bill of Rights. In July 2004, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit voted 2-to-1 upholding a lower court decision declaring the poster unconstitutional.

The petition (http://www.aclj.org/media/pdf/041215_DeWeese_cert_petition.pdf) asks the high court to take the case and notes that on at least seven occasions, members of the Supreme Court have specifically recognized that the Commandments are a source of law. Further, the petition cites what the high court has repeatedly called the "unbroken history of official acknowledgement by all three branches of government of the role of religion in American life" for more than 200 years. The petition points out the high court "has displayed no constitutional squeamishness about conducting its business since the 1930's in a building which contains at least three depictions of Moses and the Decalogue as a source of law." The brief also notes that other courts and public bodies have not shied away from displaying the Commandments as a source of law - including a federal courthouse in Ohio where a federal judge declared Judge DeWeese's poster unconstitutional - a courthouse that contains a large painting of the Commandments flanked by two angels.

The petition also includes comments made by Judge Alice M. Batchelder - the 6th circuit judge who dissented in the DeWeese case - who concluded that Judge DeWeese's poster "signal(s) respect not for great proselytizers but for great law givers."

In July 2004, the ACLJ asked the Supreme Court to take a case out of Adams County, Ohio where the same appeals court determined it was unconstitutional for the school district to display monuments of the Ten Commandments - along with other historical documents - outside four high schools. And, just last week, the ACLJ filed an amicus brief in support of the public display of the Commandments in a case out of McCreary County, Kentucky - one of two Commandments cases the high court is considering this term.

The ACLJ, which is involved in 12 cases of defending displays of the Commandments around the nation, is based in Washington, D.C. and is online at www.aclj.org.