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Contact: Cindy Roberts (662) 844-5036 ext. 227
For Immediate Release:  8/19/2005

Ten Commandments resurrected by federal court

(Tupelo, MS) - In an en banc ruling, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a lower federal court order requiring the removal of a Ten Commandments monument in Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The court had earlier vacated a three-judge panel’s decision, which upheld the lower court’s order.

The Ten Commandments monument was donated to the City of Plattsmouth in 1965 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. The Plattsmouth monument is one of many other Ten Commandments monuments given by the Eagles to towns, cities and states in the 1950s and 1960s.

In its opinion, the court likened the Plattsmouth monument to the Ten Commandments monument at issue in Van Orden v. Perry, where the Supreme Court recently held that the state of Texas did not violate the Establishment Clause when it accepted a Ten Commandments monument from the Eagles. The monument was installed on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol.

Brian Fahling, senior trial attorney for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy, said the court “found the Plattsmouth monument was a permissible use of the text of the Ten Commandments to acknowledge the role of religion in our nation's heritage.”

In its ruling, the court also observed, “Although the text of the Ten Commandments has undeniable religious significance, simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the Establishment Clause.”

The ACLU brought the lawsuit claiming the monument violated the Establishment Clause. The case is ACLU v. Plattsmouth, Nebraska, No. 02-2444.

American Family Association is a pro-family advocacy organization with over two million online supporters.

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