Religious monument may stay, judge rules

A federal judge has ruled that a tablet-shaped, 46-year-old monument of the Ten Commandments may continue to occupy space outside Everett's former City Hall.

In an 11-page decision issued yesterday, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik of Seattle said that based on its history and location, and the community's reaction to the display, the monument "poses no real threat to freedom of religion and is therefore permissible" under the First Amendment.

No decision has been made on whether to appeal the judge's ruling. A spokesman for the nonprofit group that bankrolled a lawsuit seeking removal of the monument said Lasnik's decision represents at least the third such ruling by federal courts since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a pair of Ten Commandment decisions in June.

There may be "no point in challenging them" further, said Rob Boston, a spokesman for Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State, referring to scores of monuments distributed in the 1950s and 1960s to state and local governments around the country.

Yesterday, Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said the city has spent between $125,000 and $130,000 to defend itself against the lawsuit.

The plaintiff, an Everett man named Jesse Card, filed the suit in 2003. Yesterday, Card was participating in a "bike for peace run" and unavailable for comment, according to a woman who answered the phone at his home.

The woman, Tamara Roberson, said she had spoken with Card. She said he knew about the ruling and that he was "dealing with it OK."

In his order, Lasnik noted the Everett monument is among many the Fraternal Order of Eagles agreed to distribute decades ago at the urging of a Minnesota juvenile-court judge who thought doing so would help curb juvenile delinquency.

The late movie producer Cecil B. DeMille assisted in distributing the roughly 6-foot-tall granite monoliths that prominently display the King James version of the Ten Commandments, the judge noted.

But Lasnik also noted that back in 1988 the monument was relocated to a less prominent location in front of what was then City Hall to make way for three black monoliths commemorating city residents who died in the service of their country. The Ten Commandments monument "now stands among trees and shrubbery" that partially or completely obscures it unless the viewer stands in front of it, he said. The former City Hall now houses the police station.

Lasnik also noted that until 1990, when a citizen wrote a letter questioning the propriety of displaying it on city property, the monument went unchallenged. The judge concluded that the Everett case was "remarkably similar" to a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued in June that OK'd the display of a granite monument on the grounds of the Texas state capitol.

Citing the reasoning of Justice Stephen Breyer, the swing vote in that decision, Lasnik held that ordering the removal of such aged displays would "lead the law to exhibit a hostility toward religion that has no place in our Establishment Clause [of the First Amendment] traditions."

Peter Lewis: 206-464-2217 or plewis@seattletimes.com