Sunday, April 02, 2000
Commandments bill facing fight
Legal challenge likely if signed
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Gov. Paul Patton is expected to sign legislation that would allow postings of the Ten Commandments in public schools and on state Capitol grounds. But those who teach and practice constitutional law foresee a legal challenge that could make such legislation null and void.
Such a bill, they say, will have to buck major precedent set by cases dealing with the First Amendment's establishment clause and its call for church-state separation.
The bill passed the Senate last week, after it narrowly made it out of the House earlier in the session.
A major stumbling block to a new law is Stone vs. Graham, which stemmed from a parent's challenge of a 1978 Kentucky law that required the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that such postings were unconstitutional because they had no secular purpose or educational function.
Jeff Vessels, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said he most definitely will challenge one aspect of the bill that cleared the Senate this week and now awaits Mr. Patton's signature.
That aspect is the requirement that a Ten Commandments monument be taken out of storage and again placed on the Capitol grounds. On the provision that urges schools to teach students about Christianity's influence and permit the display of the Ten Commandments with other historical documents, Mr. Vessels plans to take a wait-and-see approach. He wants to see how school districts would implement such a provision.
The ACLU already has filed federal lawsuits against Harlan County Schools and Pulaski and McCreary counties in Kentucky for posting the Ten Commandments.
Mr. Vessels says he remains uncomfortable with the ongoing push across the nation to post the religious documents because of Columbine and other incidents of school violence. He thinks politicians are pushing for such postings to score votes and because of their religious convictions.
“Certainly, politics plays a part, (and) some of the legislators are very sincere in their belief,” he said. But, “legislators simply don't care that this might be unconstitutional. I find that attitude very troubling.”
Some legislators take umbrage and say they don't understand the fuss.
“I expect a challenge from the ACLU every time we do anything,” said Sen. Jack Westwood, R-Erlanger, a retired teacher. “I don't understand really what the big flap is anyway. I don't see why posting the Ten Commandments is going to hurt anybody. It's a no brainer. Let's move onto things that should have serious controversy.”
He doubts some students will even notice the postings.
“You could have an announcement of a dance and still have a hundred kids ask about the location,” he said. “I don't think the posting (of the Ten Commandments) is going to create any intrusion into their moral psyches. If it does, I think that's great.”
Others are hoping the bill's language and the postings as part of historic document displays will make it tough for the ACLU to make a case.
“To me, we ought to be going back to our heritage, going back to what this country was founded on,” said Senate President Pro Tem Dick Roeding, R-Lakeside Park, who voted for the bill Wednesday. “The ACLU goes after things like that. We should go ahead and accept the challenge.”
“There will be a challenge as soon as the ink is dry,” said Jonathan Entin, who teaches First Amendment law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He thinks there are bound to be Kentucky residents uncomfortable with the postings, just as there were 20 years ago for Stone v. Graham. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in that case.
He noted that the present Supreme Court has been relatively sympathetic toward religion in schools but that it's “taken a pretty hard line against direct endorsements of religion.”
Regarding the provision to let the Ten Commandments be part of historic document displays, he said that a lot will rest on whether the displays seem free of religious indoctrination.
Enquirer reporter Patrick Crowley contributed to this report.
Patrick Crowley covers Kentucky politics for the Enquirer. He can be reached at 578-5581, or (502) 875-7526 in Frankfort.
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