According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the Kentucky House of Representatives yesterday voted 95-5 to approve a bill permitting Ten Commandments displays on public property. With the House vote, the bill goes to the Governor, whose approval is expected. The Lexington-Herald Leader also reports on the bill's passage.
The bill, HB 277, permits the display in public buildings, on public property and in schools of historic monuments, symbols and texts if they are displayed in a balanced, objective and not solely religious manner. The display must neither favor nor disfavor religion generally or a particular religious belief. Also any display must promote Kentucky's historic, cultural, political, and general heritage and achievements. The bill also provides for the return to the Capitol grounds of a Ten Commandments monument that had been removed under court order in 2000 to a Fraternal Order of Eagles site. And the bill calls for posting "In God We Trust" in the House of Representatives chambers.
Meanwhile, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who is running for Governor of Alabama, is apparently speaking around the country pressing for the display of the Ten Commandments on public property. An interview with him was published today by the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, prior to Moore's appearance on Tuesday at a Toledo-area Christian school. The former judge, who was removed from office after refusing to obey a court order to remove a large Ten Commandments monument from Alabama's supreme court building, told the Blade: "I did not disobey the rule of law. I disobeyed the rule of man. No judge or person can put himself above the law he is sworn to uphold. And we are not sworn to obey such men, but the Constitution."
