Ten Commandments monument spurs lawsuit in Florida

Wed Feb 7, 2007 4:26pm ET

MIAMI (Reuters) - A U.S. civil rights group has sued a tiny, rural Florida county for erecting a granite monument bearing the Ten Commandments outside the local courthouse, on the grounds it violates the U.S. Constitution.

"Government does not have the right to tell Americans which God to worship," Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said on Wednesday.

The case is similar to one in Alabama several years ago that stirred a national debate on the role of God in public life.

In that case, the state Supreme Court's chief justice, Roy Moore, a fundamentalist Christian, installed a 5,000-pound (2,270-kg) Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of a judicial building in Montgomery and was later ordered by a federal court to remove it.

The ACLU filed suit in a federal court on Tuesday against Dixie County, population 14,647, saying commissioners in the north Florida county violated the Constitution by putting a 5-foot (1.5-meter), 6-ton monument outside the courthouse, which also houses the sheriff's department, elections supervisor and other offices.

The group said the Constitution prohibited governments from endorsing religious messages such as the Ten Commandments.

"Dixie County is in effect thumbing its nose at the Constitution by putting up the display," Glenn Katon, an attorney for the ACLU, said in a conference call.
Dixie County officials did not immediately return calls for comment.

The ACLU said the display favored one religion over another and an inscription at its base, which reads: "Love God and Keep His Commandments," effectively added an 11th commandment written by county officials.

In Alabama, Moore took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which turned down his appeals.

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