Justices Weigh Religious-Monument Dispute

November 13, 2008

Author: Staff Writer

Source: The Associated Press

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_10968740

The Supreme Court warily confronted a case Wednesday that mixes limits on free speech with issues of church-state separation.

The justices engaged in lively arguments over a small religious group's efforts to place a monument in a public park that already is home to a Ten Commandments display.

The court seemed reluctant to accept the arguments put forth by the religious group known as the Summum that once a government accepts any donations for display in a public park, it must accept all.

Yet the court also was uncomfortable with the position of Pleasant Grove City, Utah, which rejected the Summum's request to erect a monument similar to the Ten Commandments marker that has stood in the city's Pioneer Park since 1971.