ACLJ Defends Constitutionality of Ten Commandments Display in Frederick, MD as Federal Court Trial Gets Underway

January 18, 2005

(Baltimore, MD) The American Center for Law and Justice, focusing on constitutional law, said todays trial underway in U.S. District Court in Baltimore regarding the challenge to a Fraternal Order of Eagles monument of the Ten Commandments displayed in a park in Frederick, Maryland will be closely watched.

This is an important case involving the constitutional display of a Ten Commandments monument that has been part of the fabric of this community for nearly 50 years, said Francis J. Manion, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ who is representing the Eagles at the trial.  Many courts have recognized that the Commandments displayed in conjunction with other historical documents are constitutionally appropriate and does not violate the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.  It is our hope to convince the court that the monument in Frederick merely reflects the acknowledgement that the Commandments served as a basis for western law and have played an important role in the development of our legal system.

The ACLJ represents the Eagles in the case.  The monument was donated to the city in 1958.  It originally stood outside city hall but was later moved to a city park where it was displayed along with war memorials, a George Washington plaque, and other markers of local historical significance. 

In 2002, the ACLU filed suit challenging the monument.  The city sold it and the parcel of land on which it stood to the Eagles.  The ACLU dropped its suit, but in June 2003 Americans United for the Separation of Church and State filed a suit challenging the validity of the sale.

Earlier this month, a federal appeals court upheld the constitutionality of such a display in a case involving the city of La Crosse, Wisconsin which sold its monument and the land it sits on to the Eagles.  A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit determined the sale of the monument and land to the Eagles was constitutionally appropriate.  The ACLJ represents the Eagles in that case.

The case involving the Commandments display in Frederick is being heard by U.S. District Court Judge William D. Quarles and begins today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

The ACLJ, which is defending the public display of Commandments in communities across America, has several cases pending at the U.S. Supreme Court.  The ACLJ has asked the high court to take two cases out of Ohio concerning the display of the Commandments and is filing amicus briefs with the high court in two other Commandments cases that will be heard this term.

The American Center for Law and Justice is based in Washington, D.C.