ACLU to appeal ruling allowing commandments on court seal

AUGUSTA - The American Civil Liberties Union will appeal a federal judge&#39;s ruling that an image of the Ten Commandments on the Richmond County Superior Court seal is constitutional, an ACLU official said Tuesday. <br> <br> ``We believe the decision is out of step with the decisions involving the Ten Commandments and the use of religious symbols on seals,&#39;&#39; said Gerry Weber, legal director of the ACLU in Georgia. <br> <br> Weber said the appeal would be filed within six weeks. He is confident the decision will be overturned. <br> <br> U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr. said in the decision signed Friday that the 130-year-old seal has a secular purpose, its principle effect does not advance or inhibit any religion, and it does not foster excessive government entanglement with religion. <br> <br> Bowen said ``state action that indirectly, remotely or incidentally benefits religion&#39;&#39; is not unconstitutional. <br> <br> The seal - used on about 25,000 court documents a year - includes a drawing of two stone tablets containing the Roman numerals I through X, with a sword puncturing the tablets. <br> <br> Some officials at the court in Augusta suggested that the drawing could be construed to represent the Bill of Rights or the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, a French manifesto of the 18th century. <br> <br> The seal design may have been selected intentionally for court documents because in the 1870s, about 35 percent of the state population could not read. The Ten Commandments is an easily understood symbol for both the Judeo-Christian religions and rule of law, Bowen wrote. <br> <br> The plaintiffs, the Rev. Daniel King, E. Ronald Garnett and Shirley Fencl, filed suit against the design of the seal in 2000. They contended that it implies that Christianity is the preferred religion of the Richmond County courts and government.