Gibson Co. monument ruled constitutional
Maureen Hayden of the Evansville Courier & Press files a report titled, “Ruling puts commandments on display in Gibson.”
A federal judge has ruled the Ten Commandments monument on the Gibson County courthouse lawn in Princeton, Ind., meets the new constitutional test established by the U.S. Supreme Court in its landmark rulings this summer on the public display of the biblical edicts. The order, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Young in Evansville, reverses his earlier decision in January ordering the monument’s removal.
The ruling follows two U.S. Supreme Court rulings in June on the subject in Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky. In McCreary County, the Court, by a 5-4 decision, declared unconstitutional displays of the Ten Commandments in county courthouses. In Van Orden, in a 5-4 decision without a majority opinion, the Court upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument that sits between the Texas State Capitol and the Texas Supreme Court. Only Justice Breyer saw a distinction between the two.
Ten Commandment display controversies are not new to Indiana. In March the Seventh Circuit held a display of the framed text of the King James version of the Ten Commandments in a county building was constitutional. It was one of nine historical pieces that make up a “Foundations of American Law and Government Display” in the County Administration Building in Elkhart County, Indiana. You can access a pdf version of the ruling here. The Goshen News offers some background in an earlier article titled “Ten Commandments ordered removed from county display.” An earlier Ten Commandments monument in Elkhart County met a different fate in the Seventh Circuit in late 2000.
Update: Marcia Oddi has posted the opinion and links to other media reports on the ruling.
