As the gubernatorial election approaches in Kentucky, Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration last Monday filed a petition in federal district court asking it to clarify the scope of an earlier injunction prohibiting the state from placing a 10 Commandments monument on statehouse grounds. (See prior posting.) According to WYMT News as well as a press release from the Governor, the new lawsuit was filed after a recent donation to the statehouse by a private citizen of the "Foundations of American Law and Government Display", a display that includes documents like the Mayflower Compact and the Bill of Rights along with the Ten Commandments. The governor's race between Republican Fletcher and Democrat Steve Beshear (the state's Attorney General from 1980-84) has included attacks on Beshear for a 1981 opinion [LEXIS link to OAG 81-12] he wrote advising public schools that a then-recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling meant that public schools must remove copies of the Ten Commandments already hanging in classrooms. A spokesperson for Gov. Fletcher said that the recent court filing had nothing to do with the upcoming election.
UPDATE: On Monday, a day before the gubernatorial election, a Kentucky federal district court ruled that the earlier orders enjoining the placing of a large 10 Commandments Monument outside the Kentucky Capitol did not apply to the Foundations of American Law display. However the court did not rule on the constitutionality of the Foundations display. Within hours the Foundations display was put up in the Capitol Rotunda and Gov. Fletcher issued an executive order calling for it to remain until a later court ruling is issued. (Louisville Courrier-Journal, Nov. 6.) Meanwhile, AP reported on Wednesday that former state AG Steve Beshear defeated Fletcher in the gubernatorial race. In the campaign, Beshear touted his religious upbringing and ran TV ads with him in front of a church.
