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Fifth Circuit Will Hear Case Over Texas Courthouse Bible Display

(AgapePress) - The entire Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear a case involving a longtime display of a Bible on government property in one Texas county. Three years ago an atheist sued Harris County over the Bible display, which is part of a monument erected on the grounds of the Harris County Courthouse in Houston in the 1950s.

Earlier this year, a three-judge panel of Fifth Circuit ruled that the display containing a Bible was unconstitutional. But Edward White III, trial counsel with the Thomas More Law Center, says the monument does not violate the Constitution because it was donated by a local homeless shelter, the Star of Hope Mission. He claims the monument, erected as a tribute to a longtime benefactor named William Mosher, is the "private speech" of the mission.

The Bible display at the county court building is the Christian charity's monument, White says, because it was the representatives of Star of Hope Mission who put the display up and they who were "speaking" through it. "And since there are other monuments up in this courtyard as well," he adds, "it's not an Establishment Clause violation, [in] that the government is speaking. It's a free-speech issue."

The Thomas More Law Center attorney believes the fact that the entire Fifth Circuit has agreed to listen to arguments in the matter is an encouraging development for those battling to save the Bible display at the Harris County Courthouse. "If the full court just wanted to have the monument removed," the court "could have just said, 'We're not going to hear the case,' and then the monument would be removed," he points out.

When an appellate court decides to rehear a case, this is "always a very good sign if you have lost the case," White observes, "because it means you now have another crack at it." The attorney, who authored the Law Center's friend of the court brief on this case, says the Star of Hope Mission's memorial to William Mosher is protected speech under the First Amendment.

The Fifth Circuit's willingness to hear the case "gives us hope," White adds. He says he and the Law Center are optimistic that the court will permit the Christian charity's memorial to William Mosher to remain at the Harris County Courthouse, on the same public ground where it has stood for more than 50 years.