ACLJ Pleased Federal Appeals Court Upholds Constitutionality of Ten Commandments in La Crosse, Wisconsin

January 4, 2005

(Chicago, IL) The American Center for Law and Justice, which focuses on constitutional law, said today it is pleased that a federal appeals court has determined that a decision by the City of La Crosse, Wisconsin to sell a monument of the Ten Commandments and the land it sits on to the Fraternal Order of Eagles instead of removing it is constitutional and does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  The decision by the appellate court overturns a decision by a federal district court.

The appeals court understood that the action taken by the city to preserve the monument is not only appropriate, but constitutional as well, said Francis J. Manion, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ who presented oral arguments before the appeals court in September on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Eagles.  The appeals court is correct in determining that the arrangement by which the city sold the monument and the land it sits on to the Eagles a private organization is constitutional and a reasonable solution to keeping the monument in place.

In February 2004, a federal district court ruled that the August 2002 sale of the monument and the land it sits on by the city to the Eagles violated the Establishment Clause because the sale itself demonstrated a preference for the religious message of the monument . . . .                   

In a 2-1 decision issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, the appeals court rejected that conclusion saying the sale was constitutionally appropriate.

The appeals court also relied on a similar case it considered in 2000 when it determined that it was valid and appropriate for the city of Marshfield, Wisconsin to sell a statue of Jesus to a private landowner as long as it was made clear to the public that the city no longer owned the statue.  The ACLJ represented the city of Marshfield in that case. 

In its decision in the La Crosse case, the appeals court concluded that the buyer of the parcel has a long-standing and important relationship with the Monument.   In the words of the appeals court:  It was the Eagles, of course, who donated the Monument to the City in the first place and it is the Eagles who have maintained the Monument.  Selling the Monument to the Eagles, rather than removing it, also makes practical sense the Eagles headquarters is, and has long been, directly across the street from the Monument.  The members will also continue to carefully maintain the site.

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.

Further, the ACLJ is awaiting a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on whether it will reverse a decision by one of its three-judge panels that declared a monument containing the text of the Commandments in Plattsmouth, Nebraska to be unconstitutional.

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