Tulsa World: Commissioners claim Ten Commandments monument is legal, file federal appeal

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Commissioners claim Ten Commandments monument is legal, file federal appeal

The Ten Commandments monument on the lawn of the Haskell County Courthouse in Stigler. The Haskell County commissioners contend an appeals court was legally wrong when it ruled a Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse lawn violates the Constitution.(Tulsa World file)

By ROBERT BOCZKIEWICZ World Correspondent
Published: 6/22/2009 7:23 PM
Last Modified: 6/22/2009 11:05 PM

DENVER — The Haskell County commissioners contend an appeals court was legally wrong when it ruled a Ten Commandments monument on the courthouse lawn violates the Constitution.

The commissioners, in a new filing at the federal appeals court in Denver, want all 12 judges to reconsider the June 8 ruling by a three-judge panel of the court.

The decision by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the 8-foot-tall monument in Stigler is unconstitutional because its primary effect is to endorse religion.

The commissioners’ new filing asserts the ruling “directly conflicts” with the Supreme Court’s 2005 decision that upheld a 6-foot-tall Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol.

“In fact, this is the first and only circuit to strike down a Ten Commandments monument” after the 2005 decision, the commissioners assert. They, through their attorneys at the Alliance Defense Fund, state that three federal appeals courts in other parts of the country have upheld such monuments.

The ruling was the result of a challenge to the monument, erected in 2004, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma and a Haskell County resident.

In seeking a rehearing, the commissioners also challenge the ruling’s focus on public comments some of the commissioners made about their Christian beliefs being a factor in their support of the monument.

The new filing states newspapers reported in 2004 one commissioner said he would allow monuments reflecting documents from other faiths and that another commissioner said he did “not have a problem” if other faiths wanted a monument.

The commissioners point out that a different appeals court in 1989 concluded that personal religious convictions expressed by school board officials about their votes on an issue did not violate the Constitution.

The June 8 ruling “sets a perilous precedent for the constitutionality of future legislative acts in the Tenth Circuit,” which consists of Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, the commissioners assert. “For example, legislators who tell reporters that their vote to ban the death penalty is based on their personal religious convictions would make the law subject” to the same constitutional challenge used against the monument.

The appellate judges on Monday gave the ACLU until July 1 to respond to the request for a rehearing. The court rarely grants requests to reconsider its decisions.

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By ROBERT BOCZKIEWICZ World Correspondent

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "County appeals monument ruling," which was published on 6/23/2009. So far, 37 comments have been made.