Eighteen months ago, a parent in Giles County, Virginia, objected to the Ten Commandments being posted in a high school as part a huge collage of documents linked to America’s political and legal heritage. The school district does not want them removed and the case remains in U.S. District Court. In the past few days, Federal Judge Michael Urbanski offered a compromise – scrap the first four commandments and leave the final six. Urbanski suggested that could resolve the dispute since the first four commandments directly refer to God and the final six concern interaction among humans. Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel is representing Giles County in the case. He says several other documents in the school display reference God, including the Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence, but no one is asking that those be taken down or edited. Staver says the school district is rejecting the judge’s proposal and so is the parent, who is allied with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. Mr. Staver explains where the case stands now and what will likely happen if court-ordered mediation does not succeed.
