Case also requests Court to clarify Establishment Clause rulings

www.LC.org

Washington, DC – Today Liberty Counsel filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting that the Court take on a case it heard in 2005 involving the “Foundations of American Law and Government” display (“Foundations Display”), which includes the Ten Commandments, on two county courthouse walls in McCreary and Pulaski Counties in Kentucky. The original lawsuit was filed by the ACLU in 1999. 

McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky was first argued at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 by Mathew Staver, Founder of Liberty Counsel and Dean of Liberty University School of Law. In a 5-4 decision, the Court upheld the preliminary injunction against the Ten Commandments in the Foundations Display, which contains 9 documents displayed in 10 equal-sized frames, plus an eleventh frame that explains the display. The majority ruled that the predominate purpose of the government officials who erected two prior displays was religious. The Court sent the case back to the lower court for a full trial. The same case has now returned back to the High Court.

In the meantime, since 2005, the identical display has been upheld in three separate federal court of appeals cases. Liberty Counsel defended each of these cases. In each case, the ACLU refused to ask the Supreme Court to review the case because, as the ACLU admitted, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired from the High Court, and the fifth vote would no longer be favorable.

Liberty Counsel’s petition also asks the Supreme Court to overturn the infamous so-called Lemon test, which the Court has sometimes used in Establishment Clause cases. Liberty Counsel has requested the Court to issue a ruling that will provide an objective standard for Establishment Clause jurisprudence that is more consistent with the intent of the First Amendment.

“The Ten Commandments has influenced American law and government and may be displayed in a court of law,” said Staver. “The Supreme Court should issue a clear ruling that frees judges and lawmakers from the Establishment Clause purgatory created by its confusing rulings. The Supreme Court should use this case to bring common sense back to the First Amendment.” 
 

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