WINDER, Ga. — In the latest legal battle concerning separation of church and state, a judge in Georgia has ordered that the Ten Commandments must not be displayed outside a local courthouse or other public property.

Barrow County in Georgia lost its fight to display the commandments outside its courthouse under an order signed yesterday by U.S. District Court Judge William O'Kelley, who said the county would remove the display and pay $1 in damages and $150,000 in legal fees to those who sued over it.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit against the Barrow County in 2003 on behalf of "John Doe" — an anonymous resident symbolically representing any American — who wanted a Ten Commandments display removed from a breezeway in the courthouse.

The county initially refused, prompting a nearly two-year legal battle that ended with the order that the county must not hang similar displays on public property.

However, the ruling said Barrow County officials and employees would still be allowed to display the Ten Commandments "in any form or any place on his or her person or in his or her personal office so long as such display is not in any public area of any building or property under the authority of Barrow County Board of Commissioners."

Court records show attorneys for both Barrow County and the American Civil Liberties Union have agreed to the order. A trial in the case scheduled for tomorrow is canceled.

Gerry Weber, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia, told the Athens Banner-Herald. "We think that this will make Barrow County a more inclusive community where folks don't feel like outsiders in their own homes."

Barrow County Commission Chairman Doug Garrison did not return calls for comment about the order.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that displaying the Ten Commandments on government property is constitutionally permissible in some cases but not in others — effectively leaving future disputes to be settled case-by-case.

The Supreme Court has said the key is whether there is a religious purpose behind displaying the commandments. The rulings mean thousands of Ten Commandments displays around the U.S. will be validated if their primary purpose is to honor the nation's legal, rather than religious, traditions.

Location also will be considered, the Supreme Court has decided, with wide-open lots more acceptable than, for example, schoolhouses filled with young students.

The First Amendment to the Constitution essentially requires the government to stay neutral on religious belief.