Court Rejects 10 Commandments Case

The case won't reach Supreme Court, but could impact how other states deal with church-state disputes.

BY: Michael Kirkland

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court has refused to review the case of an Indiana community ordered by a lower court to remove a Ten Commandments monument from its city grounds because of the constitutional separation of church and state.

Three conservative justices dissented to the Tuesday denial, saying the monument in Elkhart, Ind., has as much "civic significance as it does religious." However, at least four justices must agree that a dispute merits Supreme Court attention before the court takes on a case for argument and an eventual decision.

Though a denial of review by the Supreme Court sets no precedent, it does leave in place the lower-court appeals court ruling, which holds sway in the 7th U.S. Circuit. The circuit includes Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. But its influence could be felt across the country as other courts thrash out similar disputes.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, said the full court made a mistake in not taking on the case for argument.

"I would grant (review) to decide whether a monument which has stood for more than 40 years, and has a least as much civic significance as it does religious, must be physically removed from its place in front of the city's Municipal Building," Rehnquist said in his dissent.

Justice John Paul Stevens, who oversees the 7th U.S. Circuit and was one of the 6 justices refusing review, wrote a separate opinion criticizing Rehnquist's dissent, which he said "omits one extremely significant fact and discounts another."

Stevens said the dissent ignores the first lines on the monument, even though they appear in significantly larger letters: "The Ten Commandments -- I am the Lord thy God."

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