Ten Commandments amendment dies in Alabama Legislature

By The Associated Press

04.18.02

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MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A constitutional amendment to allow posting of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms died in the closing seconds of the 2002 regular session of the Alabama Legislature.

The amendment was the next scheduled bill on the agenda in the House when the Senate adjourned yesterday afternoon, effectively ending the session. Stalling tactics over the past two days by House members opposed to a bill to require physicians to give women information about the risks of abortion delayed action on a number of bills, including the Ten Commandments amendment.

House members passed the abortion information bill late yesterday afternoon, but could not get to the Ten Commandments amendment before the session ended. If the constitutional amendment had passed, it would have gone before voters statewide for approval in the general election Nov. 5.

The sponsor, Rep. DuWayne Bridges, R-Valley, blamed the death of the amendment on Democrats, who he said did not want conservative voters going to the polls during the general election.

"This was a prime example of how the left-wing Democrats control what the people have a chance to vote on," Bridges said.

The Democratic leader in the House, Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, said he still personally believed the amendment was unconstitutional. But he denied having anything to do with killing it.

"I expected it to come up there at the end. I did not expect the Senate to adjourn when they did," Guin said.

House Speaker Seth Hammett also denied there was any conspiracy by Democratic leadership in the House to kill the amendment.

"(That) is absolutely untrue," Hammett said. "There were a number of people clamoring at the last minute to bring up bills out of order. That's why it didn't come up."

The Ten Commandments amendment was supported by Dean Young, executive director of the Christian Family Association. Young was a longtime supporter of Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore's efforts to display the Ten Commandments in his courtroom when he was an Etowah County circuit judge.

"The Alabama Legislature has reached a new low," Young said. "The whole thing was that they didn't want the God-fearing people going to the polls in November."

Young said he expects to propose the Ten Commandments amendment again next year.

Meanwhile, the La Crosse, Wis., City Council yesterday decided to keep a Ten Commandments monument in a city-owned downtown park, despite pleas from the mayor to remove it.

The council voted 14-4 to keep the monument in Sherman Park, acknowledging the city could face a lawsuit from the Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The organization has sent the city three letters threatening litigation in the last six to eight months, including one in the last few weeks, said Mayor John Medinger. The group believes the placement of a religious statue on state land is a violation of the Constitution's guaranteed separation of church and state.

"I think the city's chances of winning this lawsuit are pretty slim," said Medinger, who recommended removing the statue from public land. "Obviously they were persuaded by the turnout tonight."

About 200 people were on hand, many who opposed moving the statue. The council had received a petition with 4,078 signatures of people who didn't want the monument moved.

The petitioners said the monument's location does not violate any provision of the U.S. Constitution and "deserves to be defended and protected in its present historic and traditional location by any and all means available to the city."

The monument has stood in Sherman Park, about five blocks from the Mississippi River, for the past 35 years, Medinger said.

"It's unfortunately become quite nasty and divisive," Medinger said. "This gets to be such an ugly issue and people become very intolerant of each other."

Two other Wisconsin cities — Monroe and Milwaukee — opted to move their statues from public land after the U.S. Supreme Court in February decided not to take up an Indiana case, letting stand a lower court ruling that barred placing the monument on statehouse grounds.

Milwaukee gave its statue to a local hospital and Monroe gave its to the YMCA.

The La Crosse City Council could have opted to give its statue to the Fraternal Order of Eagles or Christ Episcopal Church, which had both offered to take it.

Previous

Alabama House panel backs Ten Commandments amendment
Proposal would allow religious codes to be displayed on state property, including in schools.  01.27.02

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