Judge upholds religious display in Oklahoma

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A federal judge in Oklahoma has upheld a Ten Commandments display outside a county courthouse, saying county officials did not advance any religious viewpoint by allowing the monument to be built two years ago.

U.S. District Judge Ronald White ruled Aug. 18 that Haskell County, Okla., commissioners did not err in allowing the 8-foot-tall stone monument to be erected on the county courthouse’s lawn in Stigler.

He relied on recent opinions by the U.S. Supreme Court suggesting that government displays of religious symbols or texts that are important parts of Western civilization can be done in a constitutional manner, depending on their contexts and histories.

White wrote that county commissioners did not “overstep the constitutional line demarcating government neutrality toward religion” in allowing the monument.

The stone monument has a translation of the Decalogue on one side and a copy of the Mayflower Compact on the other.

He noted that there are several other monuments on the Haskell County Courthouse lawn, including ones honoring veterans of various wars and the Choctaw Indian tribe, decreasing the religious value of the Decalogue display.

“A reasonable observer would see that the [commandments] monument is not the focus of the courthouse lawn,” White wrote. “The mélange of monuments surrounding the one at issue here obviously detract from any religious message that may be conveyed by the commandments.”