Kentucky school district posts religious codes despite judge's order
By The Associated Press
10.30.00
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FRANKFORT, Ky. — Another Kentucky school district has posted the
Ten Commandments despite a federal judge's order barring such displays. Laurel
County school officials argue that their display will pass constitutional
muster.
"We've made our best attempt at this," said Larry Bryson, attorney for
the Laurel County School Board, whose resolution has been used as a model by
other districts. "I don't think anybody would have a problem with any of these
documents except the Ten Commandments."
The action comes despite an injunction in May by U.S. District Judge
Jennifer Coffman ordering schools in Harlan County to remove the religious
document from school walls. Coffman also ordered the religious codes out of the
courthouses in Pulaski and McCreary counties.
Laurel County school officials argue their display includes seven
other historical documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the
Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, displayed with equal prominence.
School boards in Casey, Clinton, and Pulaski counties have also passed
resolutions allowing their schools to follow the lead of Laurel County schools.
And McCreary County veterans have
reposted the religious codes in the courthouse.
The latest efforts to post the religious codes are part of a
grass-roots movement to post the documents in every school district in the
state.
"Our objective is to go into every one of them," said David
Carr, vice president of the Ten Commandments Advancement Fund, a Corbin, Ky.,
advocacy organization spearheading the campaign.
Representatives of the fund spoke before officials in all four
counties that have approved "historical documents" resolutions. The nearly
identical resolutions declare that the items on display "positively contribute
to the educational foundations and moral character of students in our schools."
Carr has also asked the Wayne and Cumberland county boards to approve
similar resolutions, and he says he plans to make appeals to every school board
in the state.
The Ten Commandments fund pays the $153 it costs to print the
display — which is matted in a school's colors and housed in a gold frame
— and presents it to community volunteers who post it after school hours,
Carr said.
Scholars offer mixed views of the "historical documents" strategy. It
has been used in Indiana, where a state law passed in July allows schools to
post such documents.
Doug Laycock, a University of Texas law professor, says the strategy
is flawed because it equates the religious codes with other government
documents.
"If they want to do this, they have to create a wider set of
documents, some documents from other faith traditions, or at least some other
cultural documents without governmental status," Laycock said.
Charles Haynes, the First Amendment Center's senior scholar for
religious freedom, said, "No one can predict how the courts would decide, but
there is every reason to think it might be upheld."
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