ACLU Seeking Offended People For Plaintiffs In New Ten Commandments Controversy

ACLU Seeking Offended People For Plaintiffs In New Ten Commandments Controversy

Dozens of county residents took a few extra minutes on the way home from church Sunday or on the way to work Monday morning to drive past the Dixie County courthouse to see for themselves if what they had heard was true.

It was.
A six-ton block of granite bearing the Ten Commandments had been installed atop the courthouse steps. Inscribed at the base was the admonition to "Love God and keep his commandments."

"There are no negatives there to live by," said Skipper Jones, former owner and publisher of the county's weekly newspaper. Jones served as spokesman Monday for Joe Anderson Jr., one of the leaders of the effort to have the monument constructed and situated at no cost to the county.

"Mr. Anderson was involved with others and took a very active role in seeing this was accomplished because he feels this is something the country needs to get back to," Jones said.

The concept of a Ten Commandments monument was endorsed by county commissioners, according to the minutes of the Jan. 19 regular board meeting.

Former Commissioner John Driggers broached the subject on behalf of an unnamed county resident, asking whether the board was "bold enough" to allow the monument to be placed at the courthouse. After then-county attorney Joey Lander told the board he would defend any lawsuits stemming from the decision for free, commissioners voted in favor of allowing the project to proceed.

Although Lander has resigned as county attorney, he told The Sun on Monday afternoon that he would uphold his offer.

"I will gladly represent them for free but I wouldn't want to challenge someone to file a lawsuit," Lander said. "If the commissioners were willing to make the bold statement, I am willing to do my part to represent the county in their bid to keep them (the commandments) there."

A number of lawsuits regarding the display of the Ten Commandments have been filed over the past half century, including some that have made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court. A year ago the nation's top court ruled that a similar monument could legally remain on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin.

The Texas monument was erected in 1961 and is one of 38 similar items on the property. The nation's top justices voted 5-4 in favor of leaving the Ten Commandments monument in place in Texas, with the majority noting that "the Ten Commandments have an undeniable historical meaning. . . . Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the (First Amendment)."

In another high-profile case, Alabama's judicial ethics panel voted unanimously in 2003 to remove Chief Justice Roy Moore from office for installing and then refusing to remove a 2.6-ton Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state's Supreme Court building. The monument was ultimately removed from the state building.

Brandon Hensler, director of communications for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said, "There are certainly values in the Ten Commandments that are enshrined in the law and should be upheld, like 'Thou shalt not murder.' "

But he continued, "If there are residents of Dixie County who understand our country's constitutional values and that it is the role of churches - not of government - to urge people to love God and keep his commandments, we would be interested in speaking with them."

County Coordinator Arthur Bellot said he had not heard any negative comments, "but I have had several positive comments."

Among the county businessmen involved in the project was Ben Barber, owner of Dixie Monument, who spent two weeks engraving the monument.

"This was made from American black granite with white variegation that was quarried in Pennsylvania in May," Barber said. "Then it went to Georgia for shaping and polishing before it got to me for engraving. A block of granite that big - 12,000 pounds - costs about $20,000."