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ACLU CHALLENGES DIVISIVE RELIGIOUS DISPLAY AT DIXIE COUNTY COURTHOUSE
Religious Leaders Speak Out Calling for Religion to Be Taught by Religious Groups and Family, Not Government
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – PHOTOS AVAILABLE
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
CONTACT:
Brandon Hensler, Director of Communications, 786-363-2700
CROSS CITY, Fla. – The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida filed a lawsuit late yesterday in federal court, challenging the constitutionality of a governmental display of a Ten Commandments monument erected in front of the Dixie County Courthouse. The suit is being brought by the ACLU of Florida on behalf of its members.
The six-ton granite monument was endorsed by the Dixie County Commission early in 2006 after a resident questioned whether the “Board is bold enough” to have the monument erected on the courthouse steps, according to minutes from the January 19 Commission meeting. It also includes the large inscription at the base of the monument to “LOVE GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS.” The county attorney offered to defend any lawsuits pro bono, the Commission agreed, and the monument was placed on the County Courthouse steps in November, 2006.
“Government does not have the right to tell Americans which God to worship,” noted Howard Simon, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. “The Ten Commandments are an important part of the Judeo-Christian religious tradition and should be read from the pulpit of churches and synagogues – but the Constitution prohibits the government from endorsing religious messages such as this one. In addition to the commonly held secular commandments about murder, stealing, and honoring one's mother and father, the Ten Commandments also include strictly religious statements.”
“The question is not whether the Ten Commandments embody the right teachings; rather the question is who is the right teacher – politicians or parents, public officials or religious leaders, judges or families,” said J. Brent Walker, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. “As a minister, I can think of little better than for everyone to read and obey the Ten Commandments; as a lawyer, I can think of little worse than for governmental officials to tell us to do it.”
The Establishment Clause in the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees that government will not prescribe religion. Erecting one version of the Ten Commandments sends a signal to others that they are not welcome and will treated unfairly, the ACLU said.
In June 2005, when the Supreme Court struck down state-sponsored Ten Commandments displays in several Kentucky courthouses, the Court confirmed that the Constitution forbids the government from displaying such inherently religious monuments without a clear secular purpose. At the same time, the Court also upheld a Ten Commandments display in Texas, but only because that 40-year-old monument was placed in a non-religious setting among numerous historical documents and markers. The Ten Commandments monument in Dixie County is not flanked by any other historical monuments.
“There are many different versions of the 10 Commandments – including Catholic, Jewish and Protestant,” said Harriet Kurlander, Executive Director of the Southeast Region of the American Jewish Congress. “When government endorses one particular religious group’s version of the Ten Commandments, it sends an impermissible message of government preference for one religion over another.”
Counsel for the case are Glenn Katon, Regional Director for the ACLU of Florida’s Central Florida office; Rebecca Harrison Steele, Director of the ACLU of Florida’s Religious Freedom Project; and Randall Marshall, Legal Director for the ACLU of Florida.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida vs. Dixie County, FL was filed late Tuesday, February 6, 2007 in the United States District Court for Northern Florida and can be read online at: http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/Legal%20PDfs/DixieComplaint.pdf.
Photos of the monument can be viewed at: http://www.aclufl.org/news_events/gallery/index.cfm
About the ACLU of Florida
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida is freedom's watchdog, working daily in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend individual rights and personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. For additional information, visit us on the Web at: www.aclufl.org.
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