Constitutional Law

Ky. governor OKs posting of God phrases in Capitol walkway

By By The Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A legislative chaplain received permission Feb. 4 to post excerpts from historical documents that reference God in a Capitol walkway, settling a dispute that had raised the ire of lawmakers and ministers.

The governor?s office intervened in the dispute that made its way onto the Senate floor when a lawmaker questioned why the Rev. Lee Watts had been denied permission to display phrases from a variety of writings, including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Pledge of Allegiance.

?I?m really glad the powers that be (at the) state Capitol have come around and allowed us to have our freedom of expression and freedom of speech,? said Watts. ?As soon as it got some attention, everything worked out, and they?ve been accommodating, and I?m very pleased.?

Watts wants to display the God phrases on ?Preachers Day at the Capitol,? when hundreds of Christian ministers come to Frankfort to pray for lawmakers and to hold a rally.

State curator David Buchta, head of the Kentucky Division of Historic Properties, initially said he denied Watts? request based on concerns about separation of church and state. Later he said he had misspoken and that he turned down the request based on a policy that required a gubernatorial proclamation to post displays in the underground walkway that leads from the Capitol to an adjacent government office building.

?We are disappointed in this misunderstanding,? said Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Gov. Steve Beshear. ?We have advised Chaplain Watts that Mr. Buchta was incorrect, and the governor?s office is working with Chaplain Watts to post historical documents in the tunnel.?

Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, aired the dispute in a floor speech on Feb. 4, urging Buchta to reverse his decision.

?I think we?ve been down this path before, that historical documents can be displayed on state property,? Higdon said. ?To say we can?t put up these historical documents that mention the word God, I just take offense at that.?

Higdon said he was perplexed by the denial.

?What we?re doing is just asking to display statements about God that are in our founding documents and on some of our national monuments,? Watts said.

Kentucky has long been at the center of a national debate over public displays of religious documents. Most recently the American Civil Liberties Union waged a successful legal fight to keep government and religious documents off the walls of courthouses in McCreary and Pulaski counties.

Local officials triggered the dispute by posting stand-alone copies of the Ten Commandments that a court found ?indisputably unconstitutional? at the time. The counties later added a variety of historic documents, including the Bill of Rights, Magna Carta and Star Spangled Banner, to the displays in hopes of making them legally acceptable.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the ACLU in 2005, saying the display had a predominantly religious purpose. However, the high court has also ruled that religious materials could be allowed as part of an educational or historical display.

A similar display that?s been in the Kentucky Capitol for about four years has faced no legal challenges.

Watts had made two separate requests for displays in the Capitol walkway. Initially, Watts proposed displaying quotes from the nation?s Founding Fathers. When that was rejected, he asked permission to display certain phrases from historical documents and monuments, including the national motto, ?In God We Trust,? and the words from the Pledge of Allegiance, ?one nation, under God.?

Full post as published by First Amendment Center on February 07, 2011 (boomark / email).