ACLU of Kentucky

United States District Court

The ACLU of Kentucky has asked that state officials be held in contempt if they move forward with plans to place a Ten Commandments monument on state Capitol grounds, as directed by the 2006 Kentucky General Assembly.

The original case, Adland v. Russ, began in 2000 after then-Gov. Paul Patton signed into law a Senate Joint Resolution calling for placing the Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds near the floral clock.  The Senate resolution contained several religious references — including referring to the United States as a “Christian nation” — and quoted famous Americans about God, the Bible, and/or Christianity.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood found at that time that the Senate resolution and proposed monument display violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause and barred the monument’s display.  The federal appeals court agreed and the U.S. Supreme Court denied review in 2003.

The 2006 legislature then directed that the same Ten Commandments monument be removed from storage and placed on Capitol grounds, along with a marker that details “aspects of the legislative and judicial history related to the display of this monument of the Ten Commandments.”  We argue that this new-found “historical” purpose is a sham, thinly masking the same legislature’s overt religious purpose (a purpose that the legislature defended for three years).

Judge Hood now has directed the Commonwealth to detail its plans, describing the content, location and size of each monument it proposes to erect alongside the Decalogue monument.  Once it does so, the parties will argue about the proposed display’s constitutionality.  Until then — that is, unless and until the court approves the Commonwealth’s proposed display — the monument will remain in storage.