Commandments heading to court

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling on the constitutionality of Salt Lake City's monolith, was the first court in the nation to address the issue in 1973. The appeals court upheld the display, which it determined was primarily secular and not religious in nature.

The Salt Lake tablet stood until 1998, when the religious organization Summum was denied a request to erect a monument espousing its beliefs and brought a First Amendment challenge to the governmental display.

In June, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins upheld the Eagles monument in Pleasant Grove City Park based on the 1973 ruling.

Though the Supreme Court has not previously ruled on the issue, four justices issued rare public statements in May 2001 when the court denied to accept a similar case.

Three of the court's most conservative jurists, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said the monument at issue in the Indiana case was a "celebration of (the city's) cultural and historical roots, not a promotion of religious faith."

In response, liberal Justice John Paul Stevens noted the clearly religious nature of the first line of the commandments — "I AM the LORD thy God." — and the inclusion of two Stars of David and a symbol that represents Christ. Those elements, Stevens wrote, are "rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference."

The two cases will be argued after the first of the year, with an opinion likely coming back before the court ends its 2004-05 session in early June.

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E-mail: awelling@desnews.com