Alabama Rep. To Push `Court Stripping' Bill On Ten Commandments.

Federal courts would be barred from hearing cases dealing with government-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments under legislation expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives this month.

Rep. Robert B. Aderholt (R-Ala.) says he will reintroduce his "Ten Commandments Defense Act" after Labor Day. Aderholt has introduced the measure before, but it has never come up for a vote in the House. He believes that recent court rulings striking down state-sponsored Commandments displays in several states will turn the tide in his favor.

During a July 27 interview with TV preacher Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network, Aderholt said the 10th Amendment gives the states powers not reserved to the federal government and thus, if the jurisdiction of the federal courts were removed, states and communities would be free to erect the Ten Commandments.

"It's our argument that the Ten Commandments do not establish any religion," Aderholt said. "Certainly Christianity has a history with the Ten Commandments but also Judaism and Islam. So certainly there's no establishment of any particular religion with the Ten Commandments."

Aderholt went on to advance the rather unusual legal theory that the Supreme Court should not always be the final arbiter of the Constitution, asserting, "[O]ver several decades, there has been a view that the United States Supreme Court has the final authority.... And it would be our argument, we would make the argument, the Supreme Court does not always have the final authority over the interpretation of the Constitution."

Previous "court stripping" efforts have not fared well in Congress. Throughout the 1980s, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) tried repeatedly to remove the ability of the federal courts to hear school prayer cases. None were enacted into law. It is also unclear if the Supreme Court would allow Congress to limit federal court authority in this way.

In other news about the Ten Commandments:

* North Carolina legislators have approved a bill allowing public schools to post the Ten Commandments as part of larger historical displays containing other documents, and Gov. Mike Easley has promised to sign the measure into law.

The bill passed the state House of Representatives 94-18 July 26. It had earlier passed the Senate by a wide margin. It states that the Ten Commandments may be posted alongside other documents that "exemplify the development of the rule of law."

* A federal court in Colorado has ruled that the city of Grand Junction may keep its Ten Commandments monument at the city hall. U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel noted that he was bound by a 1972 ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing a government-sponsored Ten Commandments monument to stand in Salt Lake City. Grand Junction officials plan to spend $50,000 to add other monuments to the area listing other legal codes. They plan to call the site "Cornerstones of Law and Order Plaza."

The ACLU is considering an appeal of the ACLU v. Grand Junction case.