Back on display — 01/19/10 » Editorials » Daily Independent (Ashland, KY)

Editorials

Discussion

January 18, 2010

Back on display — 01/19/10

Battle over 10 Commandments continues in federal courts

Anonymous The Daily Independent Mon Jan 18, 2010, 05:55 PM EST

The battle over the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings continues with the courts providing seemingly inconsistent rulings.

In a 2-1 decision released Thursday, the 6th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Cincinnati reversed a 2008 lower court decision that ruled that the inclusion of the Ten Commandments as part of a display of historical documents in the Grayson County Courthouse in Leitchfield was primarily religious and amounted to an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion.

The Ten Commandments were part of a “Foundations of American Law and Government” display in the Grayson County Courthouse that included the full text of the Mayflower Compact, the full Declaration of Independence and other historical documents with an explanation of their significance.

In voting to overturn a lower court decision by U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley, Appellate Judge David W. McKeague wrote that minutes of the Grayson County Fiscal Court show county officials were interested mainly in having the historical display at the courthouse.

“While there is no doubt that the fiscal court members could have been more explicit about their educational goals, we nonetheless find that, taken as a whole, the foundations display endorses an educational message rather than a religious one,” McKeague wrote. U.S. District Judge Karl Forester of Lexington agreed.

Appellate Judge Karen Nelson Moore dissented, saying the minutes of various fiscal court meetings make the intent of the display clear. Moore noted that county officials didn’t discuss the historical significance of the commandments or other documents in the display until after being sued.

“The county’s asserted purpose here — that the display was posted for educational or historical reasons — is a sham and should be rejected,” Moore wrote. “The predominant purpose at the time the fiscal court voted to approve the display was a religious one.”

Thursday’s ruling clears the way for the display to go back up in the Grayson County Courthouse, but don’t be surprised if the ruling is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

That’s part of the problem. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings is acceptable if it is part of a historical display, but the high court has given the lower court a great deal of leeway in determining whether each individual display of the Ten Commandments is “religious” or “historical.”

Because the high court has not be clear in its guidelines for the proper display of the Ten Commandments, it has left open the door for seemingly contradictory lower court rulings. The Grayson County case may give the high court the opportunity to add some needed clarity to its earlier rulings.

Text Only

Editorials

Excellent idea
State Rep. John Tilley, D-Hopkinsville, wants to do for Kentucky’s juvenile code what he was instrumental in helping do for the state’s criminal code. It’s an excellent idea.

February 11, 2012
Charles Chattin
Before it merged with Ashland Community College to form Ashland Community and Technical College as a result of the 1997 Higher Education Reform Act, the Ashland Area Vocational-Technical School compiled an impressive record for teaching job skills to young adults and placing more than 85 percent in jobs for which they were trained.

February 10, 2012
Try again
It is time for Kentucky Speaker of the House Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, and Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, to cease playing political games and redraw district lines that are compact and are based far more on population changes during the first decade of this century than on partisan politics.

February 9, 2012
'Asset poor'
More than one in four Kentucky households are “asset poor,” meaning that they are living from paycheck to paycheck with little or no financial cushion to fall back on should they suddenly lose their jobs or have another emergency resulting in a temporary loss of or delcine in income.

February 7, 2012
Safer mines
The head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) says coal operators throughout the country are improving their operations and, as a result, mines are becoming safer. However, MSHA chief Joe Main said too many coal operators still “don’t get it” and are continuing to cut costs by ignoring safety. That’s why MSHA plans to continue targeting mines with a history of repeated violations for additional inspections.

February 7, 2012
Not far enough
For the past three sessions of the Kentucky General Assembly, bills that would raise the minimum dropout age from 16 to 18 have been approved by the Kentucky House of Representatives by wide bipartisan margins only to die in the Senate without even a vote.
Now the Senate Education Committee has unanimously approved a dropout bill hailed as an alternative to the House bill, but it does not go nearly far enough. It is a halfway measure that would have only a limited effect on preventing teenagers from quitting high school before graduation and virtually assuring themselves of lives on the lowest rungs of the economic ladder.

February 6, 2012
Not their job
The local government committee of the Kentucky House of Representatives has wisely killed a bill — dubbed “Cooper’s Law” — that would have allowed the family of the Lexington toddler with cerebral palsy to have a playhouse on their property despite a deed restriction that apparently prohibits such structures.

February 6, 2012
Keeping FADE
Despite an increase in cost to the department, Carter County Sheriff Casey Brammell told the Carter County Fiscal Court that his department will continue to be active in the FIVCO Area Development Drug Enforcement (FADE) Task Force — at least for now.

February 4, 2012
Needed changes
The soaring enrollment that Kentucky’s community and technical colleges have experienced in recent years could come to a sudden end — or at least be slowed — as about 5,500 students in the statewide system that includes Ashalnd Community and Technical College are expected to lose their financial aid under new rules being implemented by the federal government.

February 3, 2012
Released early
While it is disappointing that 75 of the 952 prisoners granted early release in January have violated the terms of their releases, the good news is that none of the former inmates have been charged with new felonies. That’s an early, but positive, indication that the nonviolent felons released before their sentences were up have been carefully selected and are among those least likely to return to a life of crime.

February 2, 2012
More Editorials Headlines

Editorials

Search Results

Discussion

Back on display — 01/19/10

Battle over 10 Commandments continues in federal courts

Site Map

Contact Us