Yesterday the United States Supreme Court granted the request of McCreary and Pulaski Counties to file a post-argument Supplemental Brief in support of the Kentucky Ten Commandments display. This is the second time since the case was argued on March 2, 2005, that the Supreme Court has accepted post-argument briefing by the Kentucky counties. McCreary and Pulaski Counties are represented by Liberty Counsel. Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel, presented oral arguments in the Supreme Court on March 2.

In an order issued yesterday, the Supreme Court accepted a Supplemental Brief filed by Liberty Counsel in support of the Kentucky Ten Commandments case. This brief brought to the Court’s attention the March 25, 2005, decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Books v. Elkhart County, Indiana. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a display of the Ten Commandments identical to the one before the Supreme Court in the Kentucky case. In the Books case, Justice Easterbrook stated that a new test for the First Amendment should be established and that the so-called Lemon test should be abandoned. Judge Easterbrook urged the adoption of a coercion test that would find a violation of the Establishment Clause only when the government imposes a tax to support ministers or compels participation in a religious exercise.

It is unusual for the Supreme Court to accept supplemental briefs following oral argument, and it is even more unusual to accept two such briefs. On April 4, the High Court accepted a post-argument Supplemental Brief in support of the Kentucky Ten Commandments case. That brief addressed questions raised during oral argument regarding whether a resolution on a prior display had any relevance to the current display before the United States Supreme Court.

Mathew D. Staver commented, “I am pleased that the Supreme Court now has before it information regarding the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision, which upheld a display of the Ten Commandments identical to the display in the Kentucky courthouses. The reasoning of the court of appeals decision is helpful and should be persuasive to some of the Justices on the United States Supreme Court. Our shared American and Western legal tradition has unquestionably been impacted and shaped in part by the Ten Commandments.”

A decision in the Supreme Court cases of McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky and Van Orden v. Perry is expected anytime between now and the end of June.