WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) – dedicated to the defense of constitutional liberties secured by law – on Thursday filed its brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on behalf of Ohio Common Pleas Court Judge James DeWeese urging the court to clear the way for the Judge to display a poster in his courtroom that includes the Ten Commandments as part of an exhibit on legal philosophy. The ACLJ is asking the appeals court to overturn a federal district court ruling from October that declared the poster unconstitutional and issued an injunction prohibiting its display.
“For nearly a decade now, the ACLU has been trying to silence Judge DeWeese’s expression of his legal philosophy,” said Francis J. Manion, Senior Counsel of the ACLJ who is representing Judge DeWeese in the case. “That philosophy, which holds that a society’s legal system must rest on moral absolutes as opposed to moral relativism, and that abandonment of moral absolutes leads to societal breakdown and chaos, is the same philosophy that was held by the founders of this nation. To say, as the ACLU does in this case, that a judge may not espouse such a view because it is ‘religious’, is to adopt an erroneous and timeworn interpretation of the First Amendment that is not based on the words, the history or the Founders’ understanding of the Constitution.”
At issue is a poster designed to illustrate Judge DeWeese’s legal philosophy. The poster features two columns of principles or precepts intended to show the contrast between legal philosophies based on moral absolutes and moral relativism. The judge used a version of the Ten Commandments as symbolic of moral absolutes, and a set of statements from sources such as the Humanist Manifesto as symbolic of moral relativism.
In a brief filed Thursday with the federal appeals court, the ACLJ contends the ACLU lacks legal standing in the case, that the lower court erred in determining that the display violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution and violates articles of the Ohio Constitution, and contends that the Judge’s display is protected by the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.
The brief contends that Judge DeWeese’s display is constitutional. “Neither DeWeese’s discussion of the contrast between legal philosophies based on moral absolutes as opposed to moral relativism, nor his use of the Decalogue as a means to illustrate that contrast bespeak a constitutionally problematic religious purpose,” the brief argues. “Moreover, a reasonable observer of the poster would view the poster as a statement about legal philosophy, morality, and ethics, not theology or religion.”
And the brief argues that failing to permit Judge DeWeese from displaying his exhibit infringes on his constitutional rights. The brief contends: “Judges not only have the right, but are positively encouraged by the Code of Judicial Conduct, to write, speak, lecture, and teach concerning the law, the legal system, and the administration of justice. DeWeese’s poster falls well within acceptable boundaries of judicial freedom of speech.”
“The reasonable observer in DeWeese’s courtroom, given all of the various factors discussed above — knowledge of the forum, the physical setting, the specific individualized words of the poster itself — is far more likely to see the display as what it is intended to be: a personal expression of a personal opinion of an individual who works for the government, rather than a statement of official policy being made by the government,” according to the brief.
The ACLJ brief was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio in the case of ACLU of Ohio v. Judge James DeWeese. You can read the ACLJ brief here.
This case is just the latest episode in the ACLU’s crusade to rewrite our nation’s history and heritage – purging any references of our country’s Judeo-Christian roots. The ACLU filed its first case against Judge DeWeese in 2001.
Led by Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow, the American Center for Law and Justice is dedicated to the defense of constitutional liberties secured by law and is based in Washington, D.C.
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Preceding provided by the American Center for Law and Justice