Goshen, USA -- The Indiana Civil Liberties Union is seeking a rehearing after a ruling by a federal appeals court that a Ten Commandments display inside a government building does not violate the U.S. Constitution.
The plaque in question was removed from its place in the Elkhart County administration building in March 2004, when a U.S. district judge ruled it violated the First Amendment.
On Friday, the appeals court in Chicago reversed that decision, ruling that the document could be posted with various historical documents as part of Elkhart County's Foundations of the American Law and Government Display.
"We were obviously disappointed by it," Ken Falk, ICLU legal director, said of the decision. "The previous times with Ten Commandments cases, we've won."
But according to 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges, the commandments are presented in a historical context for the county.
"We see no reason why the display as erected must be purged of the Ten Commandments to survive constitutional scrutiny," Judge Diane Sykes wrote in the majority opinion. "It appears Elkhart County has taken us at our word by exhibiting the Ten Commandments in a comprehensive display with other historical texts and images that it considers to be important influences in American legal and political tradition."
Controversy has surrounded the document since it was posted inside the government building in 2003, along with the Mayflower Compact, Magna Carta and other historical documents.
Less than two weeks later, a lawsuit was filed by the ICLU on behalf of Elkhart resident William Books, requesting its removal.
Elkhart County residents Jim Bontrager and Bob Weaver, who donated the replicated documents to the county, fought to keep the plaque in place.
"It's obviously a historical angle," Bontrager said Tuesday. "Needless to say, we're elated."
According to the Associated Press, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook dissented in the appeals court ruling, writing that the court did not address the merits of the case and that he would dismiss the ICLU suit for lack of standing.
Easterbrook wrote that mere offense to a religious display does not grant standing to sue.
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment forbids the government from creating an official church or supporting one religion over other beliefs. In Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971), the U.S. Supreme Court set an accepted three-part test on constitutionality, court documents said.
The 7th Circuit ruled Elkhart County satisfied each requirement: secular appeal, no advancement or inhibition of particular religious beliefs, and avoidance of "excessive entanglement" between government and religion.
However, the ICLU has not given up on the case just yet.
It is now requesting a rehearing before the entire appeals court, Falk said, hoping the decision once again will be reversed.