Editor’s note: The full 6th Circuit on March 23 refused to hear the case. Erik Stanley, an attorney representing the counties, said he would file an appeal with the Supreme Court.

PIKEVILLE, Ky. — Three Kentucky counties should not post the Ten Commandments in public buildings, even if the religious laws are accompanied by other historical documents, a federal appeals court ruled yesterday.

McCreary and Pulaski county officials hung framed copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses and later added other documents, such as the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence, after the display was challenged. Harlan County had similar displays in its schools.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman's 2001 preliminary order to remove the displays until the conclusion of a lawsuit challenging their constitutionality.

Coffman said in her ruling that the purpose of displaying the Ten Commandments was "religious in nature."

She said the fact that the displays began with just the Ten Commandments and only later added the other documents "bolstered the reasonable observer's perception of the state endorsement of religion."

6th Circuit Judge Eric Clay wrote in yesterday's majority opinion in ACLU of Kentucky v. McCreary County that both the schoolhouse and courthouse displays showed a religious purpose, conveying a "bald assertion" that the Ten Commandments formed the foundation of American legal tradition.

Clay said attorneys for the Kentucky counties did not cite a single historical source to support the proposition that the Ten Commandments inspired, for example, the Declaration of Independence, which is one of several historical documents included in the displays.

"The court has rousingly endorsed the principles of religious freedom and rousingly endorsed the requirement that government remain neutral toward religion," said David Friedman, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, which filed suit to have the displays taken down. "We are delighted with the opinion."

Judge Julia Gibbons delivered a separate opinion concurring with Clay. Judge James Ryan issued a dissenting opinion.

"The influence of religion upon American law and government is a fact of American history and politics that has been widely recognized by scholars, jurists, legislators, presidents, and, not least, the founders themselves," Ryan wrote in his dissent. "In his Farewell Address to the nation, George Washington stated that religion was not only a part of the foundation of our law and government, it was a necessity."

Mathew Staver, president of the Liberty Counsel in Orlando, Fla., appealed Coffman's ruling on behalf of the Kentucky counties. Staver had argued that the Ten Commandments are only one part of a display of several historical documents and that they have a secular rather than a religious purpose.

Friedman disputed the suggestion that the Ten Commandments were fundamental to the development of the U.S. system of law and government and said there was no question that the amended displays were still religious in nature.

Though the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit court covers Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan, the ruling affects displays of Ten Commandments only in the three counties. Friedman said it offered no binding conclusion about whether displays in other counties might be constitutional.

Still, the ACLU in Tennessee will contact all counties in the state that have similar Ten Commandments displays to ask that they be removed, executive director Hedy Weinberg said yesterday. More than 30 of Tennessee's 95 counties have posted such displays.

After the 6th Circuit's ruling yesterday, Sumner County, Tenn., officials said they would remove a historical document display that includes the Ten Commandments from the county administration buildings.

Sumner County Mayor Hank Thompson said officials expected the decision.

"Everybody figured they would" rule as they did, he told The Tennessean. "I'm sure we would obey the law. What I would like to do is get a group of citizens to chip in and place a sign with the Ten Commandments on the private vacant lot across the street from the (county) administration building. Everybody who gets their driver's license would see the Ten Commandments."

Weinberg said the ruling would help with the ACLU's federal case filed last year against Rutherford County.

U.S. District Judge Robert Echols of Nashville had said he would withhold his decision until the 6th Circuit's ruling, Weinberg said. Rutherford removed its display in June.

"This was a very important decision and affirms the separation of the church and state doctrine," Weinberg said. "Our case will proceed. We are going to ask Judge Echols to decide on the Rutherford County case."

A similar display was removed from court buildings in Hamilton County, Tenn., last year. Shelby County is among several Tennessee counties that have had Ten Commandments displays in county buildings.

Staver said yesterday that he will ask the full 6th Circuit to review the case.

"We will be filing that request shortly," he said. "So, in this preliminary stage, the case is far from over."

He also said, "It doesn't make sense that you can't modify your display to make it constitutional."