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Group considers appeal
Rob Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, said Tuesday that lawyers are trying to determine if a recent higher court ruling in a similar case should have been used to guide the decision.
Chief U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose ruled Monday that Allegheny County's plaque, on the Fifth Avenue wall of the courthouse, can remain because it is not an official endorsement of a religion.
Ambrose wrote that her decision was guided by a U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling June 26 that allowed Chester County to keep a similar plaque on its courthouse.
Ambrose, describing the issues in the Chester County case as "almost identical" to the Allegheny County matter, followed the higher court's ruling in determining that the plaque here has historical value transcending any religious content.
She agreed with testimony by Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey that the plaque is "an important part of the heritage and tradition of an historic building."
Ambrose wrote that more than 20 plaques adorn the courthouse walls, commemorating subjects as diverse as 18th century Polish trader Anthony Sadowski to Pittsburgh namesake William Pitt. One, she said, includes a reference to the "one nation, under God" language in the Pledge of Allegiance.
But a reasonable observer, Ambrose ruled, would view all such plaques as part of the county's history.
Ambrose wrote that the reasonable observer would not conclude that the county's failure to remove the plaque reflects "an intent to promote or favor one religion over another or indeed even to promote religion over non-religion."
Americans United filed the suit against Allegheny County on behalf of two atheists, Andy Modrovich, of West Mifflin, and James Moore, of Squirrel Hill, who claimed the plaque violated constitutional doctrines forbidding government establishment of religion.
Neither Moore nor Modrovich could be reached for comment yesterday.
Perry Napolitano, who argued the case for Allegheny County, said he believes Ambrose's ruling would survive appeal because the facts of the case are so similar to those in the higher court's Chester County ruling.
Boston and Napolitano each said the U.S. Supreme Court has not issued a guiding opinion on Ten Commandment plaques.
The Supreme Court could agree this fall to hear a case about an Alabama judge who recently erected a Ten Commandments monument in his courtroom, Boston said, but the Pennsylvania cases are different from plaques cases elsewhere because the Pennsylvania plaques were erected in the early 1900s.
The Allegheny County plaque was erected in 1918 by a group known as the International Reform Bureau, a Christian group that sought to infuse religious principles into everyday life.
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