ACLU of Kentucky

Appeals Court rejects Counties’ arguments

At issue in this 11 year-old case are Ten Commandments displays that were posted in prominent locations in the McCreary and Pulaski county courthouses in 1999.  County officials claimed that the Ten Commandments provide the foundation of American legal tradition.   However, as many courts have found, the Ten Commandments are inherently religious principles and should not be promoted by government officials.

The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit today upheld the permanent injunctions prohibiting Pulaski/McCreary Counties from posting three separate Ten Commandments displays in their courthouses.  The Court agreed with District Court Judge Jennifer Coffman’s ruling that the displays violated the constitution because the Counties acted with a predominantly religious purpose in erecting the displays, and because they failed to sufficiently establish a predominantly non-religious reason for the third display as of September 2007.

The ACLU of Kentucky filed these two consolidated suits in 1999 on behalf of its members in Pulaski and McCreary counties and individual residents.  The ACLU of Kentucky maintained that the displays’ purpose and effect were to endorse religion in violation of the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Judge Coffman initially issued preliminary injunctions prohibiting the Counties’ first and second displays on the basis that the displays likely were unconstitutional.  The Counties removed these displays, initially appealed the injunction and then, after obtaining new counsel, dropped their appeals.

Several months after removing the second displays, the Counties posted new Ten Commandments displays. These displays of “historical documents” contained American (and earlier Colonial and British) political and patriotic documents and the Ten Commandments. Judge Coffman held that these displays too were likely unconstitutional given the displays’ history showed that the defendants’ purposes were religious, not secular, and because the displays’ effect was to endorse religion. The judge therefore enjoined this third incarnation of the Ten Commandments displays and the defendants appealed that preliminary injunction.

Both the Sixth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Judge Coffman’s preliminary injunction ruling.  On remand, Judge Coffman issued the permanent injunctions and the Counties again appealed.  Today’s decision upholds Judge Coffman’s decision entering permanent injunctions barring the Counties from posting all three displays.