ACLU attacks small town Ten Commandments display

From the Palm Beach Post...

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing to force rural Dixie County to remove a hulking Ten Commandments monument from the courthouse steps.

The 5-foot-tall, 6-ton black granite monument stands in front of a building for the courthouse, the elections supervisor office, the tax collector and other public offices. The lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday said the monument heaps on its religious message with the inscription "Love God and Keep His Commandments" in large capital letters at its base.

The Dixie County Commission approved the monument, donated by a local businessman, in January 2006 and it was placed on the courthouse steps in November. The county is on the Gulf Coast north of Tampa.

"Dixie County is, in effect, thumbing its nose at the Constitution by putting up this display," ACLU attorney Glenn Katon said....

The lawsuit says the monument violates the First and 14th Amendments because it is not part of a historical display and because the uniquely Christian message of the Ten Commandments on a government building could intimidate people with different religious beliefs.

The suit was filed on behalf of the organization, not an individual plaintiff. The ACLU said it has "half a dozen" members in the north Florida county, but declined to name any residents who might testify in the case....

The lack of an individual plaintiff may doom the case, said Brian Rooney, a spokesman for the nonprofit Thomas More Law Center, which has offered free legal aid to the Dixie County Commission. Commissioners had not yet asked the center to represent them Wednesday afternoon.

We certainly wouldn't want any closed-minded, anti-Christian bigots to be offended by having to walk past a monument containing the Ten Commandments, would we. Why imagine what "chaos" there'd be if we actually expected people to be tolerant of other religions.

Posted by Danny Carlton at February 8, 2007 6:52 AM