Liberty Counsel
NEWS RELEASE

Contact: PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT - 800-671-1776

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 25, 2006

Orlando, FL – Public displays of the Ten Commandments have enjoyed unprecedented favor in both the courts and the legislatures since the two Ten Commandments cases were argued at the Supreme Court last year.

Last week, Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue signed a bill that permits the display of the Ten Commandments in public buildings. House Bill 941 says that the “Foundations of American Law and Government” display shall include: The Mayflower Compact, The Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, Magna Charta, Star-Spangled Banner, National Motto, Preamble to the Georgia Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Lady Justice. This is the same display that Liberty Counsel defended last year before the High Court and the same display which was upheld by two federal courts in the past several months.

In Elkhart County, Indiana v. Books, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Foundations of American Law and Government display, which Liberty Counsel defended. This Circuit governs IL, WI, and IN.

On December 20, 2005, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in ACLU of Kentucky v. Mercer County, Kentucky upheld the same Ten Commandments display, which Liberty Counsel also defended. Yesterday, the Court voted 19-5 to allow the ruling to stand. The Sixth Circuit governs KY, OH, TN and MI.

The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a stand-alone Ten Commandments monument. This Circuit governs AR, IA, MO, MN, NE, ND, and SD. On April 20, 2006, a federal district court in Toledo, Ohio, upheld a Ten Commandments display, which had been on the courthouse lawn for 50 years.

On April 10, 2006, Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher signed a bill allowing the posting of the Ten Commandments.

So far the ACLU has not chosen to ask the Supreme Court to review these cases. The obvious reason is that the ACLU no longer has a majority on the High Court.

Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel, stated: “The tide is turning against the ACLU’s war on the Ten Commandments. The courts and history are working against the ACLU.”

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