WASHINGTON, DC, USA, February 2, 2011: A federal appeals court decided to require a state judge in Ohio to remove a Ten Commandments display from his courtroom, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today that James DeWeese, a judge of the Richland County Court of Common Pleas, ran afoul of the Constitution when he put up a display entitled ‘Philosophies of Law in Conflict’ that contrasted the ‘Moral Absolutes’ of the Ten Commandments with the ‘Moral Relatives’ of humanism.
‘Judge DeWeese was improperly promoting his personal religious beliefs in his courtroom, and I’m glad the appeals court put a stop to it,’ said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case. Added Lynn, ‘Our courts are supposed to provide equal justice for all, not promote religious law. Judges should never send the message that some religious traditions have a preferred place in the courtroom.’
The case goes back to 2000, when DeWeese hung a poster of the Ten Commandments opposite a poster of the Bill of Rights, presenting each as ‘the rule of law.’ The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio sued and won. In response, DeWeese created the new display. The ACLU sued over that as well.