A Kentucky federal district court has dismissed as moot a lawsuit challenging a 10 Commandments display in a Harlan County school. The student challenging the display no longer attends the school. The court also issued a complex ruling in the lawsuit against McCreary and Pulaski counties over their courthouse displays of the 10 Commandments in a Foundations of American Law exhibit. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's granting of a preliminary injunction against the displays. Yesterday's Louisville Courier-Journal reports that the district court refused to issue a permanent injunction in the case, since the Supreme Court held that in the future, the counties might be able to prove that they had purged themselves of their original religious purpose and were displaying the 10 Commandments only for secular purposes. However, the court also refused to permit the counties to restore the displays, finding that the counties had not yet eliminated their former religious motivation.
UPDATE: The full opinion in the case is now available: ACLU of Kentucky v. McCreary County,
2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77338 (ED KY, Sept. 28, 2007).
