The Ten Commandments with competing views OK’d for court

MANSFIELD (AP) — An Ohio judge who has fought since 2001 to hang the Ten Commandments in his courtroom did not violate a court order when he recently displayed a poster that included shorthand versions of the commandments, a federal judge has ruled.

A judge in 2002 ordered Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese not to display the commandments because it violated the Constitution. The decision was upheld by a federal appeals court.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the first case, recently filed another suit, saying DeWeese should be found in contempt because he had again posted a version of the Ten Commandments.

DeWeese argued that his current display is “an editorial statement” that contrasts the commandments with moral relativist views, something he said was not addressed in the previous case. The display illustrates a debate about philosophies that affect the handling of criminal cases, he said.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen O’Malley agreed, finding that the display significantly differed from what hung on DeWeese’s wall in 2002.

“It is apparent that Judge DeWeese has both expanded the current display beyond the Ten Commandments alone and offered his views of the competing philosophies represented in the display,” she wrote.