The following appeared on the editorial page of the April 11, 1997 edition of

Sunday, April 27, 1997

Religious Display Proper
By Bill Pryor

The display of the Ten Commandments in the Alabama courtroom of Judge Roy Moore is not an establishment of religion. In its landmark school prayer ruling of 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged, "The history of man is inseparable from the history of religion." In my judgment, the best example of that inseparable history is the Ten Commandments, which are the cornerstone of law for Western civilization.

Moore's display is not unique. The courtroom of the U.S. Supreme Court, for example, has three depictions of the Ten Commandments carvings on the front doors; a representation directly above the seat of the chief justice; and a depiction of Moses holding tablets on a sidewall. The courtrooms of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania contain large murals depicting Moses and the Ten Commandments, Jesus preaching the Beatitudes, and Jesus walking on water.

Two respected courts have ruled that public displays of the Ten Commandments do not violate the First Amendment. In 1973, a federal court of appeals ruled that a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of a Utah courthouse did not violate the First Amendment. In 1995, the Supreme Court of Colorado upheld a similar monument on thegrounds of the state Capitol.

The judge's display of the Ten Commandments is one of several decorations in his courtroom. He also displays portraits of Presidents Washington and Lincoln, the seal ofthe state of Alabama, an American flag, and copies of the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence. Those documents and many others from our history contain several references to God. I suppose the ACLU will next want to remove Jefferson's references to the Creator from the Declaration of Independence.