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For immediate release December 30, 1999 On September 14, 1999, McCreary County Judge Executive Jimmie W. Greene and on July 23, 1999 Pulaski County Judge Executive Darryl Beshears posted copies of the Ten Commandments on the walls of their respective courthouses where other historic documents are placed such as the Declaration of Independence. The Judges were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in U.S. District Court for the U.S. Eastern District of Kentucky at London on or about November 20, 1999 for having posted the Ten Commandments despite the fact that the Ten Commandments are the precedent legal code of American law and government, and are the foundation for hundreds of state laws in the civil and criminal codes of each state. The two (2) County Judges received threatening letters from the American Civil Liberties Union demanding the removal of the Ten Commandments from the courthouse walls. This attempt to suppress American legal and government history defies all logic as the Ten Commandments are posted on the U.S. Supreme Court Building in three (3) separate places. The ACLUâs bullying tactics are more remarkable because the ACLU has filed a number of similar legal actions in state and federal court against Alabama state circuit court Judge Roy Moore complaining that, since December 1992 Judge Moore has displayed the Ten Commandments on a wooden plaque in his courtroom. All of the lawsuits the ACLU has brought against Judge Moore have been dismissed, and Judge Moore continues to display the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Judge Moore filed a ninety page Affidavit and Statement of Facts before the Alabama Supreme Court which set out the historical and legal justification for the display of the Ten Commandments in his courtroom. Mooreâs Affidavit has been reviewed by the Pulaski and McCreary County Judges, and the magistrates. Both the McCreary and Pulaski county magistrates agree with the arguments set out by Judge Moore, and cite it as additional justification for their support of their respective County Judge. On December 8, 1999 Colonel Ronald D. Ray, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration and the Constitutional attorney in Crestwood, Kentucky in Oldham County, Kentucky was retained as lead counsel, along with Theodore Amshoff, Jr. of Louisville, Kentucky to represent the county judges and respective Pulaski and McCreary Counties in this significant legal case. The suit brought by the ACLU of Kentucky located in Louisville, Kentucky seeks a preliminary injunction enjoining County Judge Executive Jimmie W. Greene and officials of McCreary County from continuing to post the Ten Commandments in the courthouse allegedly because the plaintiffs, ACLU and Louanne Walker and Dave Howe, will "suffer irreparable harm" by having to endure the continued display of this historic American legal document. Likewise, County Judge Executive Darrell Beshears of Pulaski County was sued and served on the same day in Somerset, Kentucky. Judge Greene and Judge Beshears, as a public officials, have stated that the Ten Commandments are the "precedent legal code upon which the civil and criminal codes of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are founded" as well as the "precedent legal code for much of the United States laws and legal system". The ACLU has threatened many judges and sued these 2 judges even though there is no legal case or precedent in American or Kentucky jurisprudence which limits or forbids the display of any historical, legal, or governmental document such as the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance, Americaâs National Motto: "In God We Trust," the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution which says:
For further background, see the Resolution passed by the McCreary County Fiscal Court on December 8, 1999. A similar historic Resolution was passed by Pulaski County Fiscal Court on December 14, 1999. Also see the response Colonel Ray prepared to respond to an article submitted to the Courier Journal by Jeff Vessels, Executive Director of the ACLU. Colonel Rayâs article was not printed by the Courier although his article was the same length as Mr. Vessellsâ article.
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