Wednesday, April 2, 2008 at 1:01am
Top court to rule on dueling faith codes
The Ten Commandments will square off against the Seven Aphorisms in the Supreme Court sometime in its 2008-09 term. The justices agreed Monday to consider whether a local sect, called Summum, has the same right to erect a monument to its code as the group that erected a 47-year-old monument to the Decalogue in a Utah city park, Associated Baptist Press reported Tuesday.
In Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, the court will reconsider a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the sect, called Summum, has as much right to erect a monument in the park as the Fraternal Order of Eagles did in the 1960s, when it donated the Decalogue monument. Leaders of the sect asked the city to display the monument to its "Seven Aphorisms of Summum," which the 32-year-old group says were also handed to Moses on Mount Sinai.
The Aphorisms include such sayings as, "Everything flows out and in; everything has its season; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing expresses itself in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."
City officials refused the group's request. Summum's leaders sued, and the federal district court ruled in the city's favor. A three-judge panel of the appeals court reversed the lower court's decision, saying it was discriminatory.
In Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, the court will reconsider a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the sect, called Summum, has as much right to erect a monument in the park as the Fraternal Order of Eagles did in the 1960s, when it donated the Decalogue monument. Leaders of the sect asked the city to display the monument to its "Seven Aphorisms of Summum," which the 32-year-old group says were also handed to Moses on Mount Sinai.
The Aphorisms include such sayings as, "Everything flows out and in; everything has its season; all things rise and fall; the pendulum swing expresses itself in everything; the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left; rhythm compensates."
City officials refused the group's request. Summum's leaders sued, and the federal district court ruled in the city's favor. A three-judge panel of the appeals court reversed the lower court's decision, saying it was discriminatory.