Jewel
August 20, 2003, 05:33 PM
A federal appeals court rejected a Chester County atheist group’s request to revisit a ruling that allowed a bronze Ten Commandments plaque to remain posted at the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester. (http://www.pottstownmercury.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10029325&BRD=1674&PAG=461&dept_id=18041&rfi=6)
The court’s one-sentence denial leaves the atheist group with one last avenue for appeal -- the U.S. Supreme Court.
While the group’s founder said she had not yet decided whether to pursue that option, a lawyer for the Chester County commissioners expressed confidence in his case in the event that she did.
The denial was the latest action in the county’s 2-year-old Ten Commandments case, which largely involved the appeals process in 2003.
On July 30, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, a local organization of atheists and agnostics who advocate freedom from religious intrusion, petitioned the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision from an April appeal.
In that decision, a three-judge panel from the Philadelphia-based court sided with Chester County’s commissioners in ruling that the 82-year old Commandments plaque could stay on the courthouse’s facade in the interest of historical preservation.
The court’s one-sentence denial leaves the atheist group with one last avenue for appeal -- the U.S. Supreme Court.
While the group’s founder said she had not yet decided whether to pursue that option, a lawyer for the Chester County commissioners expressed confidence in his case in the event that she did.
The denial was the latest action in the county’s 2-year-old Ten Commandments case, which largely involved the appeals process in 2003.
On July 30, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, a local organization of atheists and agnostics who advocate freedom from religious intrusion, petitioned the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision from an April appeal.
In that decision, a three-judge panel from the Philadelphia-based court sided with Chester County’s commissioners in ruling that the 82-year old Commandments plaque could stay on the courthouse’s facade in the interest of historical preservation.