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Montgomery
Advertiser
Ten Commandments: Proposal
legalizes displays
ACLU
says Alabama lawmakers are setting themselves up for lawsuits
by
Brian Lyman
Mar.
21, 2013
A
House committee approved a constitutional amendment Wednesday that
would authorize governments and schools to display the Ten
Commandments, but an
American Civil Liberties Union attorney said the law can’t “trump the
Constitution.”
The
legislation, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, would
allow public schools and public bodies to display “historically
significant
displays which reflect the foundations of the rule of law in America,
notwithstanding that such displays may also have religious
significance.”
The
Senate approved the measure last month 23 to 1. The committee
approved the amendment on a voice vote; it now goes to the House of
Representatives. If approved there, the amendment would go to voters in
2014.
As
introduced, the bill explicitly authorized the display of the
Ten Commandments. Dial said at a meeting of the House Constitution,
Campaigns
and Elections committee that the language was changed in an attempt to
stave
off potential lawsuits.
“That
would certainly result in us going to court, because of
challenges based on religious content,” he said.
After
the meeting, Dial said he hoped the measure would defend
local communities that wanted to display the Ten Commandments.
“We
changed to historically significant religious documents,” he
said. “That would include the Ten Commandments, that would include the
Pledge
of Allegiance, you could even display a coin that said ‘In God We
Trust’ in
your building and not worry about being sued by someone.”
Dial
argued that the Ten Commandments would be considered a
“historically significant” document, claiming the Founding Fathers had
implemented it in the creation of the U.S. Constitution...
Read
the rest of the article at the Montgomery Advertiser
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