By Michael Hohmann
The Supreme Court recently decided it will listen to two appeals regarding Ten Commandment monuments on public property, but the Supreme Court decision will not likely effect the two cases in Utah.
“There are governments across the United States that have struggled with this issue,” said Jeff Hunt, a First Amendment and media lawyer for Parr Waddoups firm based in Salt Lake City. “I think the Supreme Court”s decision to take these cases recognizes that there is a need to provide some certainty in the law on this issue.”
The Supreme Court will hear an appeal sometime next year from cases in Kentucky and Texas.
The Texas case involves a granite Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state Capitol. In the Kentucky case, members of the public complained when county officials hung copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses. Both cases have been in the courts for several years.
The Utah courts have recently heard similar disputes involving Ten Commandments monuments in Pleasant Grove and Duchesne. Both cases originated from the Salt Lake City-based Summum religious sect, who sued the cities for showing religious bias.
For over two decades, the city of Duchesne maintained a statue of the Ten Commandments on public property. The Summum sect sued the city when they were not allowed to put up a similar monument on public property representing the Seven Aphorisms, religious beliefs the sect says are complimentary to the Ten Commandments.
To avoid a lawsuit, the city sold the plot of land where the Ten Commandment statue rests to the family that originally donated the monument to the city.
Attorney Brian Barnard, representing the Summum sect, spearheaded the case in Pleasant Grove, demanding that the Ten Commandments monument in Pleasant Grove be removed from a public park. In that case, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the monument represented a script more secular in nature and was not religious-specific enough to remove the monument from public property.
BYU law professor John Fee said the Supreme Court could rule in favor of or against the constitutionality of the monuments. He said the court will not likely rule on a case-by-case basis.
“It will almost certainly be a divided court with at least three justices on each side,” Fee said. “Very likely it will be a 5-4 decision with Justice O”Conner being the one who will make the deciding vote.”
Fee said it is unlikely the Utah cases will be overturned after they are brought to a close. However, if the Supreme Court does rule against the Ten Commandments in public buildings, the ruling would likely spark more lawsuits in Utah and other states.
