ederal District Judge Jennifer B. Coffman ordered Friday that copies of the Ten Commandments be removed from Kentucky courthouses in Pulaski and McCreary counties, and schools in Harlan Country.

   In a strongly worded decision, Coffman noted that even though the Decalogues were surrounded with other historical documents, they were clearly religious in nature and their placement on public property served no secular purpose. "No reasonable observer of the displays could conclude other," Coffman noted.

   Coffman also denied a motion by made the Harlan County School District and fiscal courts in the two offending counties to dismiss the lawsuit which had been brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. According to the Kentucky Herald-Leader newspaper, Friday's decision means that the case will proceed to trial, and that the religious displays must remain off the walls and property of the government buildings for the duration.

   "Its wording also suggests that the defendants will have a hard time winning with their essential argument: that the displays are historical rather than religious and therefore do not constitute a government endorsement of religion..." noted the Herald-Leader.

   Coffman's strong position on the case reflected her skepticism in the defense's claims that the Commandments served the purpose of educating the public about the "history" of religion in America. She opined that the Commandments display "both in its original form and as altered serves no secular purpose, nor was it ever intended to do so." She added that if government wished to display documents that had religious content or overtones, there would have to be a secular purpose that was "sincere and not a mere sham."

   "For this court to conclude that the original display had a secular purpose belies reason."

   The ruling was quickly denounced by religious groups and even public officials, including McCreary County Judge-Executive Jimmie Green, who announced that he would not directly comply with any judicial order to remove the religious statements.

   "I said early on I would not remove them, and I will not," Greene told Associated Press. "I'll go to jail before I'll take them down ... This is one order I will not obey." He proposed that those who filed suit remove the Ten Commandments themselves, insisting "I won't stop them."

   Attorney and State Rep. Johnny Turner, who defended the Harlan school district, branded the ruling "censorship of the worst kind."

   Proponents of displaying the commandments resorted to a legal stratagem which has worked in the past, particularly with seasonal religious displays on public property. The Kentucky commandments were presumably "secularized" by including other documents which supposedly diluted the religious content of the presentation. (During "Christmas" season, nativity creches, menorahs and other sectarian items displayed on public property have been "secularized" by the addition of holiday kitsch such as Santa Claus figures and candy canes.)

   Coffman rejected this ploy, though, noting: "While a display of some of these documents may not have the effect of endorsing religion in another context, they collectively have the overwhelming effect of endorsing religion in the context of the display... Each and every document refers to religion. Several have been edited to include only their religious references."

   She added that the alterations were "analytically meaningless," and "were merely a futile attempt to render constitutional the original Ten Commandments display."

   Indeed, the documents included token items such as excerpts from the Declaration of Independence and the Kentucky State Constitution, a copy of the Mayflower Compact and a proclamation made by President Ronald Reagan declaring 1983 as "The Year of the Bible."

   The issue of prayer and posting religious documents in government buildings -- and public school classrooms -- has been a culture war flash point in Kentucky for years. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court in STONE v. GRAHAM struck down a state law calling for the display of the Commandments in Kentucky schools. Justices noted that the Decalogue was primarily a religious document, and had no place in the public schools where the students were a captive audience.

   Display of the Ten Commandments began to emerge again as a culture war issue in the late 1990s, especially due to the high-profile case of Alabama Judge Roy Moore. The combative Etowah County Judge made a point of mounting a hand-carved Commandments plaque above his dais; despite a challenge by freethinkers in the state, the practice continued and Moore is now a candidate for the Alabama Supreme Court.

   The U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution supporting Moore and the display of the Ten Commandments in government buildings and school classrooms.

   Then came the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999.

   Religion was quickly conjured as a solution to a variety of social ills, including "violence in the schools" -- despite the fact that rates of violence were actually going down. Congress responded by passing a version of the Ten Commandments Defense Act on June 18, 1999, along with a slew of other nostrums to involve faith-based groups in social programs and government-funded outreaches. In addition, GOP Majority Whip Tom DeLay announced formation of the VAT or "Values Action Team" on capitol hill to coordinate legislative strategy with religious right groups such as the Christian Coalition and the Family Research Council.

   "Commandments Fever" began breaking out in several states, including Kentucky, and the FRC launched a "Hang Ten" campaign to encourage elected officials to display the Decalogue in their offices. Jackson County, Kentucky permitted a group of "volunteers" to begin posting copies of the Commandments in five public schools. In some case -- Adams County, for instance -- the Ten Commandments were openly on display despite the court's ruling in STONE v. GRAHAM back in 1980.

   Across Kentucky, church groups organized vocal rallies in support of the Commandments, and won the praise of televangelist Pat Robertson. Robertson compared the groundswell of popular support to the American Revolution, and warned:

"If the people of the United States -- all across America, in their churches and in their legislatures -- decide that they're not going to allow the Supreme Court to dominate their lives in the fashion that it has been in this nation, the Supreme Court does not have the power to change that. They are not going to be able to overturn the will of a hundred million American people. And I think the time has come that we throw off the shackles of this dictatorship that's been imposed on us..."

   Similar "resistance" to judicial prohibition of Commandments display spread to other states, including Illinois and Indiana, and more bills calling for prayer and Decalogue posting appeared in legislatures throughout the country.

   In late February, the Kentucky Senate approved a Ten Commandments bill. The measure encourages schools to post the Decalogue, and called upon state workers to restore a 7-foot monument to the Commandments that had been taken down from outside the capitol building in 1989.

[text only]