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Late Breaking News |
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| Date: August 12, 1998 3:26pm Contact: Americans United for Separation of Church and State Joseph Conn conn@au.org Rob Boston boston@au.org |
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Latest News Releases
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Americans United Urges South Carolina Court To Make Charleston Ten Commandments Ruling Permanent | ||
| WASHINGTON - August 12 - Americans United for Separation of Church and
State, a national church-state watchdog group, has filed a motion with a South Carolina
court to make permanent a temporary ruling forbidding the display of the Ten Commandments
in the Charleston County Council. In August 1997, Circuit Court Judge R. Markley Dennis Jr. held in Young v. County of Charleston that a plaque of the Ten Commandments posted outside council chambers was unconstitutional because it violated the separation of church and state. In his opinion, Dennis said, "Government may not affiliate itself with religious symbols or doctrines in a manner that suggests an endorsement of a particular religious faith." Dennis' ruling instructed the council to remove the plaque; this week's court filing asks that this ruling be made permanent. "With the forcefulness and clarity of Judge Dennis' ruling, this controversy should have been settled months ago," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. "Unfortunately, county officials have been unwilling to cooperate and have been dragging their feet for too long. "Government officials need to learn that the Ten Commandments is a religious text and should not be manipulated as some kind of political football," Lynn added. The motion for a permanent injunction explains that this case "involves unconstitutional action of the first order: governmental endorsement of the tenets of a specific religion. Such action strikes at the heart of the limitations imposed by the Establishment Clauses of the United States and South Carolina Constitutions." The Americans United suit was brought jointly with the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina. Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization represents 60,000 members and allied houses of worship in all 50 states. -30- |
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