Contact: Rich Hobson, Foundation for Moral Law, 334-262-1245
WASHINGTON, June 23 /Christian Newswire/ -- Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and attorneys with the Foundation for Moral Law, together with the National Clergy Council and Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital, filed a joint amicus curiae brief today in the United States Supreme Court arguing that the Summum group does not have a right under the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause to demand that Pleasant Grove City, Utah, install a "Seven Aphorisms" monument in a city park that contains a 37-year-old Ten Commandments monument. (Read the legal brief here.)
The Supreme Court decided to hear this case, Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum, after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ordered Pleasant Grove City to accept and install a monument containing the "Seven Aphorisms" of the Summum religious group. The 10th Circuit concluded that Summum has a free speech right to force the city to install its monument in a public park because a Ten Commandments monument was installed decades ago. The only choice the court has given Pleasant Grove City, therefore, is either to put up the "Seven Aphorisms" monument and anything else that may be demanded by anyone in the city or else strip all its public spaces of donated monuments and memorials to avoid such a free-for-all scenario.
Judge Roy Moore, on behalf of the Foundation for Moral Law, stated:
"When the people of Pleasant Grove City, Utah, decided to install a monument of the Ten Commandments in their city park 37 years ago they never expected that an obscure religious cult would come along and demand that its 'Seven Aphorisms' be displayed, too. Neither the U.S. Constitution nor the radical opinions of federal courts give judges a right to act as park managers to install the beliefs of a new age religion foreign to our culture and heritage."
"We are confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will adhere to a strict interpretation of the Free Speech Clause and reverse the abhorrent ruling of the 10th Circuit."
Reverend Rob Schenck, President of the National Clergy Council and Faith and Action, also stated,
"When it comes to questions of First Amendment Free Speech rights, the Ten Commandments are always in a category by themselves. Their presence seems to distort the thinking of even the sharpest minds, perhaps because these words are virtually unique and incomparably powerful."
"The more than 35,000 supporters of the National Clergy Council and Faith and Action applaud the good work of the Foundation for Moral Law and are honored to be signatories to their brief. We join with millions of other Americans in urging the Supreme Court to assiduously apply only constitutional principles as they contemplate this case and to allow reason rather than emotion and animus to prevail in their final opinion. The Court must uphold the right of municipalities to determine for themselves if they wish to display these Great Words of Sinai without the threat of nullification."
The First Amendment's Free Speech Clause requires that "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." As the joint brief filed by the Foundation for Moral Law, National Clergy Council, and Faith and Action explains, this important right of free speech was made a part of the Bill of Rights to protect the people's right to criticize public servants and keep them accountable for their public actions. The "freedom of speech" was designed to keep the people free from government tyranny, but the federal courts have expanded its meaning to be virtually free of any coherent definition or restraint.
The freedom of speech was never meant to protect such things as nude dancing, obscenity, and flag burning—nor does it require a city to install a monument of an obscure religion simply because a historic Ten Commandments monument stands on public grounds. The brief calls on the Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court decision and to return to the original, limited interpretation of the Free Speech Clause that the Founders intended.
The Foundation for Moral Law is a non-profit, religious-liberties organization located in Montgomery, Alabama, dedicated to restoring the knowledge of God in law and government through litigation and education relating to moral issues and religious liberty. To contact Judge Roy Moore and the Foundation for Moral Law, call Rich Hobson at (334) 262-1245 or email rich.hobson@morallaw.org.
The National Clergy Council is a network of church leaders from Catholic, Evangelical, Orthodox and Protestant traditions that represents more than 5000 pastors, denominational leaders and executives of religious organizations and 32,000 lay supporters located in all 50 states. Faith and Action in the Nation’s Capital is America's only Christian missionary outreach to government officials located on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. To contact Rev. Rob Schenck, call Dane Rose at 202-546-8329, ext. 106, or email DaneRose@FaithAndAction.org.
