A lawyer for three Eastern Kentucky counties told a federal appeals panel yesterday that a lower court judge last year wrongfully ordered the removal of Ten Commandments displays from their public buildings.
The three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also heard arguments from the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky that the displays in Harlan County schools and the courthouses of Pulaski and McCreary counties were unconstitutional violations of the separation of church and state.
There was no immediate ruling. The attorneys said the appeals panel could rule as early as next spring.
Three other Kentucky counties -- Garrard, Mercer and Rowan -- also are awaiting the outcome. U.S. District Judge Karl Forester ruled in August that their Ten Commandments displays could remain posted pending the 6th Circuit's decision.
In June 2001, U.S. District Judge Karen Coffman in London, Ky., ruled the Harlan, Pulaski and McCreary displays violated Supreme Court decisions requiring a secular purpose for religious documents in public buildings. The ruling came nearly a year after Coffman said a display of the Ten Commandments alone was unconstitutional.
After the first ruling, the counties modified their displays by adding historical documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, to the Ten Commandments. But Coffman ordered the biblical laws taken down.
Mathew Staver, an attorney for the counties provided by Liberty Counsel, a legal-rights group in Orlando, Fla., argued yesterday that Coffman erred in her ruling. Staver said the counties worked hard to make the displays historical and not religious in nature.
''We learned from the original decision how to erect a constitutional display,'' he said. ''We believe the Ten Commandments are deeply rooted in American history, not only from Colonial times but to the modern day.''
Staver also said the displays in Harlan County differed from those in McCreary and Pulaski counties. In Harlan County, they were part of a public forum in which any citizen could submit a document for posting, he said, and the Ten Commandments in Harlan schools were found only on a copy of the Congressional Record.
But David Friedman, general counsel of the ACLU of Kentucky, said the displays overtly promoted religion.
Judge Eric L. Clay, a member of the appeals panel, questioned Staver on the evolution of the displays.
''If you changed the display and added items to avoid litigation, don't we run into the problem of the historical context of how the displays came to be?'' Clay asked.
Friedman said it was wrong to suggest that the Ten Commandments served only as a backdrop for the Declaration of Independence.
But Judge James L. Ryan, another panel member, told Friedman that religion played a large part in the founding of the country. When America was founded, Ryan said, ''it was a Christian nation.''
Staver said if the panel rules against the counties, the case would be appealed to the full court and if necessary to the Supreme Court.
In October, a 6th Circuit panel, in a 2-1 decision, said a law adopted by the Kentucky legislature in 2000 requiring the erection of a Ten Commandments monument outside the state Capitol was unconstitutional.