Ten Commandments Display At City Hall Violates Constitution, Says AJC-AU Brief.

Government display of the Ten Commandments violates the separation of church and state, Americans United and the American Jewish Congress have advised a federal appellate court.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, the two organizations charge that posting of the Ten Commandments by the Elkhart, Ind., city government is "inconsistent with the constitutional mandate of official religious neutrality."

The organizations called on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court decision that permitted Elkhart to display the Ten Commandments adjacent to city hall. In their Book and Suetkamp v. City of Elkhart brief, AU and the AJC noted that the lower court decision was "tone deaf' to the constitutional prohibition of state establishment of religion.

Last Christmas Eve, U.S. District Judge Allen Sharp ignored precedent and upheld the city's display of the religious symbol. Sharp expressed hope that his ruling would lead to a "re-examination" of the issue of "religious messages and symbols on public property in the United States."

The AU-AJC brief disagrees, noting that the Ten Commandments include religious tenets not shared by all Americans. "Buddhists and Hindus," the groups assert, "do not accept all of the commandments on the 'first tablet' as part of a 'universal moral code' and neither do atheists."

The brief was prepared by Marc Stern, co-director of the American Jewish Congress Commission on Law and Social Action, with assistance from Steven K. Green, general counsel of Americans United.