A federal appeals court has refused to have all 11 of its judges reconsider a ruling by a three-judge panel that allowed a Ten Commandments plaque to remain on the Chester County Courthouse.
Wednesday's unanimous decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the only remaining avenue of appeal is the U.S. Supreme Court.
The appeals court had ruled on June 26 that keeping the 83-year-old plaque was acceptable because the county commissioners were motivated by historic preservation, not a desire to spread a religious message. In the petition for a rehearing, lawyers argued that the appeals court's ruling was inconsistent with U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and that the county should not have been allowed to make the historic preservation argument in the appeal because it had not raised that issue in district court.
The lawsuit was filed by the Philadelphia office of the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Pocopson atheist Sally Flynn and Margaret Downey, president of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia.
Stefan Presser, the legal director of the ACLU's Philadelphia office, said he would have to consult with his clients and the ACLU's national office before deciding whether to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. He has 90 days to file a petition with the Supreme Court.
Chester County Commissioner Andrew Dinniman said he believed that there are threats to the separation of government and religion, but said the Ten Commandments case was not one of them.
"What both the commissioners and, it seems to me, the court are trying to do is to (distinguish) the real threat from the mere shadows of a threat," Dinniman said. "As a commissioner, I always thought this was a shadow."