ACLU of Kentucky

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Jeremy Gunn, National ACLU
202-675-2307

Michael Aldridge, ACLU of Kentucky
502-581-9746

Owensboro - United States District Court Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. ruled today in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky in a challenge to the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments display in the Grayson County Fiscal Courthouse.

“The Ten Commandments play an important part in the spiritual lives of many Americans and it is precisely for this reason that the government should not be in the business of endorsing or promoting religious beliefs,” said David Friedman, General Counsel for the ACLU of Kentucky.  “People should not be made to feel like second-class citizens in their own community because they may not share the prevailing religious view – especially in a courthouse.”

At issue in the case is a Ten Commandments display that was posted in the Grayson County Fiscal Courthouse in 2001 along with various historical documents.  County officials claimed that they erected the display for purely educational purposes but upon review of the “readily discoverable facts” surrounding the display, Judge McKinley stated that “the Grayson County Fiscal Court never considered a secular purpose.”  Judge McKinley relied upon the legislative history and public comments associated with the display in finding that the Defendants action in authorizing the display served a predominately religious purpose.

When the Supreme Court last considered this issue in 2005 – in a challenge also brought by the ACLU of Kentucky – it affirmed the rulings of lower courts who found that Ten Commandments postings in the McCreary and Pulaski county courthouses “conveyed a message of religious endorsement” and thus violated the constitutional principle of religious liberty.

Since that time, the ACLU and others, acting on behalf of local communities and religious leaders, have successfully challenged Ten Commandments postings and monuments in Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and elsewhere.

“The relationship between individuals and their God, which is at the core of the Ten Commandments, is and should remain a decision made by individuals, families and religious communities.  It is not the government’s business.  Indeed, religious freedom can thrive only when the government stays out of religion, not endorsing one belief system over another,” said Michael Aldridge, Executive Director of the ACLU of Kentucky.

For more information on the ACLU’s defense of religious liberty, go to
http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLibertyMain.cfm

ACLU of Kentycky Foundation
315 Guthrie Street  Suite 300
Louisville, KY  40202
502-581-9746
www.aclu-ky.org