Idaho senator backs tablets

BOISE — A Republican lawmaker wants the Idaho Statehouse to have its own monument to the Ten Commandments.

State Sen. Gerry Sweet plans to introduce legislation authorizing the marker.

"This isn't a religious issue. The issue is about where our laws come from and who is the great legislator of the universe, which the Idaho Constitution points out is Almighty God," Sweet said. "It's becoming more and more critical to stand up and defend our Judeo-Christian heritage."

A lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho says Sweet's proposal is unwise and would very easily be rejected in court.

"When you place a Ten Commandments monument on state property, there is an implied endorsement of religion, which is exactly what is prohibited by the Constitution," said Marty Durand, staff attorney for the ACLU's Idaho chapter.

But Sweet said the dispute over a Ten Commandments monument in Alabama prompted him to bring the fight to the Idaho Legislature next month.

"Either laws come from God or they come from man, and the laws that come from man are ever-changing," Sweet said. "And therein lies a great danger."

Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from office Nov. 13 for refusing an order by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson to move a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama court building.

Sweet said his proposal would require a monument to the Ten Commandments located in a place that is "significant and reflect the importance of it. We want to make sure it's not just a plaque stuck on the back wall."

The Rev. Fred Phelps has formally asked the city for permission to install a 6-foot granite edifice bearing the name and image of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old Wyoming college gay student who died in 1998 after he was lured out of a Laramie bar by two men, kidnapped and beaten into a coma. He died five days later.

The Rev. Phelps' monument would say that Shepard went to hell because he was gay. He argues that if the government allows one religious marker, it must also allow monuments of other religious belief.