Federal judge orders Ten Commandments displays removed from two Tennessee municipal buildings

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Posted 12:50PM on Friday, May 3, 2002

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - A federal judge on Friday ordered the removal of the Ten Commandments at two municipal buildings, ruling that their display violates the constitutional separation of church and state. U.S. District Judge Allan Edgar ordered the removal of the Ten Commandments at the Hamilton County Courthouse and City Courts Building. The commandments are on engraved plaques shaped like a stone tablet. However, Edgar said the Ten Commandments display can remain at Hamilton County's Juvenile Court Building because the plaintiffs, the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, did not have the right to challenge the posting there. Edgar said none of the plaintiffs do business at the Juvenile Court so have not "endured unwelcome contact" with the display there. The ACLU and several Hamilton County residents had sued, claiming the displays violate religious freedom and are "divisive to religious diversity." The Ten Commandments were posted in December after a September vote by Hamilton County commissioners. Commission Chairman Bill Hullander has testified that the idea of posting them occurred to him a few days after the Sept. 11 attacks. Edgar said the nation's founders' "made a conscious decision" to separate religion and government, which "has served us well." "Experience tells us that there is perhaps nothing more divisive than the interjection of religion into our government. The controversy engendered by this commission action is proof of this," Edgar wrote. ACLU state director Hedy Weinberg reserved comment until she had read the judge's opinion. The attorney for the defendants did not immediately return a message seeking comment. More than half of Tennessee's 95 counties have approved similar Ten Commandments displays, and more than 30 have posted the biblical laws. The ACLU also has sued in Rutherford County over the posting of the Ten Commandments in the Murfreesboro courthouse.