Roanoke, USA - U.S. District Court Judge Michael Urbanski, in Roanoke, Va., is expected to hear a case today in which free-speech groups and a Virginia school district are fighting over the display of the Ten Commandments in a public high school.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed a lawsuit on behalf of a student to remove a Ten Commandments display from Narrows High School, claiming it violates the First Amendment’s protections against government endorsement of religion, AP reported.
The Giles County School District, which is represented by Liberty Counsel, a Christian-based nonprofit law group, claims the display is part of a larger presentation of historical documents that includes the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, The Roanoke Times reported.
The controversy started in late 2010, when the Freedom From Religion Foundation heard complaints about the display in the school, and continued over several months in which the Ten Commandments were removed and reposted several times, before being made part of a display of historical documents in American history, according to a statement from the ACLU of Virginia.
“When the government promotes one faith, whether it is through the Ten Commandments or other religious documents, it automatically diminishes all other faiths,” the national ACLU said in a statement. “Religious equality is an empty principle if something as powerful and influential as a school board is allowed to impose its religious views on the students who attend the schools under its jurisdiction,” the statement said.
Mathew Staver, dean of Liberty University School of Law and the chairman of Liberty Counsel, said that because the commandments appear with documents like the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence, they don’t violate the separation of church and state, as alleged in the suit, according to Roanoke Times.
Previously, the judge in the case ruled that the identity of the student and the student’s parents would be kept secret from the public to ensure their safety, according to the ACLU of Virginia, which claimed “significant animosity” toward their clients from the community.
Urbanski has said he’d like to see the matter resolved before the upcoming school year begins, AP noted.