AP: Split court upholds ban on 10 Commandments in Ky.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A split federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a ban on including the Ten Commandments in a display that featured multiple religious and government documents at two southern Kentucky courthouses.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled, in a 2-1 vote, that the permanent injunction barring McCreary and Pulaski counties from posting the display can remain in place. The ruling comes in a long-running legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005.

Along with the Ten Commandments, the displays, called the "Foundations of American Law and Government," included the Bill of Rights, Magna Carta and Star Spangled Banner.

The decision turned on whether the two counties "purged" the religious intent of the displays by changing the documents surrounding the commandments from primarily religious texts to writings more historical in nature.

Judge Eric Clay wrote that the two counties could not provide a "valid secular purpose" for the display.

Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/06/09/1299094/appeals-court-upholds-ban-on-10.html#ixzz0qQIPgVKU


Majority

Circuit Judge Eric L. Clay, Nominated by William J. Clinton on January 7, 1997
Circuit Judge Julia S. Gibbons Nominated by George W. Bush on October 9, 2001 (concurring)

Minority

Senior Circuit Judge James L. Ryan, Nominated by Ronald Reagan on September 9, 1985 (dissenting)

http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/10a0167p-06.pdf

sham

That would turn the right wingers against public religion as fast as they turned against offshore drilling in certain states.