Dixie Check: Judge Orders Commandments Removed from County Courthouse Steps

[Ian David]

Source: FlaglerLive

Dixie County is a small bump on Florida’s armpit around the Gulf, its geography slightly larger than Flagler’s, its population about seven times smaller, and its diversity many times smaller than that: it’s the sort of place where an established businessman can call a county commissioner to ask to have a monument of the Ten Commandments installed on the courthouse steps one week and have his wish granted the next.

That’s what Joe Anderson did when he got the Dixie County Commission unanimously to agree in January 2006, after just one phone call, to let him place a $20,000, five-foot-tall, six-ton granite monument of the commandments atop the courthouse steps, directly under the Dixie County Courthouse sign. The following line appeared at the foot of the monument, in capital letters: “LOVE GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS.” There were no other markings. The county attorney offered to defend against any lawsuit “for free.” The county claimed the monument was owned and maintained privately, by Anderson, and that it was part of a public “forum.”

“The items placed in this forum do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Dixie County Board of County Commissioners and are not sponsored or endorsed by the Board,” a sign placed next to the monument reads. The Ten Commandments monument is the only “item” in the “forum,” though inside the courthouse there are a few monuments dedicated to war veterans. The county commission enacted a rule forbidding anyone but residents or organizations of Dixie County to use the forum.

Three years earlier, the Polk County Commission had approved a $150,000 monument bearing the Ten Commandments and placed in front of the county administration building. But in that case the commandments are part of 15 different displays, including the Florida Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Magna Carta, and excerpts from speeches and letters, diminishing the explicit endorsement of religion.


The First Amendment prevails over the 10 Commandments. (ACLU)

Read more: http://flaglerlive.com/25428/dixie-county-courthouse-commandments

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Hat-tip to: http://twitter.com/#!/AmericanAtheist/status/93338783495356418

[SidDithers]

1. Awesome...nt

Sid

[Turbineguy]

2. I can understand why repubs

like to have these Commandments close at hand. They need constant reminding.

[bluerum]

3. Ten comandments at the courthouse? That's a big WTF.

[jberryhill]

4. Religious Law of Foreign Origin

OMG Sharia!

[AndyTiedye]

5. Turning Our Country into Jesusland

Glad there are still a few judges who have heard of the 1st Amendment
and are willing to stop them, this time.

[SomeGuyInEagan]

6. Think of the rides! The 40-foot tall talking Jesus!

The Apostle-themed snack bars and restaurants!

[russspeakeasy]

7. and an ark for gambling....

[SomeGuyInEagan]

8. That'd would be soooooooo sweet! Games tables on the deck ...

... race tracks below deck and religious conversions/weddings/baptisms on the bridge.

[alfredo]

9. I wonder what that county could have done with the money

they wasted on an issue that has been tested over and over again, always with the same outcome.