Public forums at heart of 2 cases
Tony Mauro has this commentary on the First Amendment Center:
Nearly three years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that a 40-year-old Ten Commandments monument could remain on display on the public grounds of the Texas State Capitol.
Now, the inevitable other shoe has dropped. The high court agreed yesterday to hear the plea of a Utah community with a similar Ten Commandments display on park grounds. Pleasant Grove City officials are asking not to be forced to allow a monument proposed by the little-known religion called Summum . . .
The city’s request for the full 10th Circuit to review the ruling failed by a 6-6 vote, with Judge Michael McConnell, a longtime expert on religion-clause jurisprudence, warning that “every park in the country” with a Veterans of Foreign Wars memorial had been transformed into a public forum for monuments. “They must either remove the war memorials or brace themselves for an influx of clutter.” . . .
Faced with that prospect, the groups say, many of the memorials would be torn down. “The Tenth Circuit has authored a recipe for chaos,” writes Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Legal Institute, author of the veterans’ brief . . .