The Morning Call from Allentown, Pennsylvania • 13

THE MORNING CALL STATE REPORT FRIDAY, JUNE 27, 2003 A13 2cllS owt upholds posting Ten CoiHETgindiiissits -'S' vi Ruling on Chester County Courthouse plaque might affect Northampton County. By David B. Caruso Of The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA A Ten Commandments plaque that has hung for 83 years on the facade of a suburban courthouse does not constitute an official endorsement of religion, and may remain there for the sake of historical preservation, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a reasonable person familiar with the plaque's history would regard the decision to leave it in place as religiously neutral, rather than evangelical.

"We cannot ignore the inherently religious message of the Ten Commandments," Judge Edward R. Becker wrote. "However, we do not believe that there can never be a secular purpose for post metal sheet. An order to remove the plaque altogether had been stayed pending the appeal. The 50-inch-tall plaque was attached to the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester in 1920.

The courthouse, designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, the architect of the U.S. Capitol's iron dome, was built in 1846 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Members of the Free-thought Society of Greater Philadelphia, an atheist group, sued the county, arguing that no one would consider the commandments anything other than a sacred text. The suit contended the plaque violated the constitutional separation of church and state. Margaret Downey, the Free-thought Society member who initiated the suit, said she may appeal to the Supreme Court.

"We, as an atheist community, feel marginalized and we feel treated like second-class citizens," she said. Morning Call reporter Scott Kraus contributed to this story. person would look at this, and say: 'Oh my or, oh my whatever, the government is establishing a religion," Snover said. While he said he understood Freedberg's desire to read the full opinion before acting, Snover said it was hard to imagine how the Chester County ruling would do anything but keep the Northampton County plaque in place. Angle, who hung a plaque featuring the commandments on the wall behind his chair during the controversy, praised the ruling.

"My Ten Commandments will hang in County Council chambers behind my chair as a long as I serve on County Council, no matter what any court decides to do," Angle said. Thursday's ruling overturned a March 2002 lower court decision that the plaque was inherently a religious statement, improper for a government building, arid must be taken down. Since then the plaque has been covered with a gray ing the Ten Commandments, or that the Ten Commandments are so overwhelmingly religious in nature that they will always be seen only as an endorsement of religion." Northampton County, which has its own Ten Commandments plaque in historic Courtroom 1, was swept up in the furor surrounding the original U.S. District Court ruling last year. While nobody went to court to have its plaque removed, President Judge Robert Freedberg said that if the appeals court upheld the original Chester County ruling that Ten Commandments plaque was unconstitutional, he might be forced to take down Northampton County's plaque.

The remarks prompted Councilman Ron Angle to launch a campaign to defend the plaque, and members of local churches collected petitions asking council to prevent its removal. Council eventually voted to ask. Freedberg to give it 30 days' notice should he decide to take down the county's plaque. Mike Margin Associated Press A MAN WHO WOULD NOT give his name, from Honey Brook, Chester County, holds a copy of the Ten Commandments as Joe Timothy (right) of West Chester waves a flag during a news conference at the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester. teered to provide council with free legal services to help in the plaque's defense, praised the appeals court ruling.

"The striking thing about the decision is that they are basically saying no reasonable Democratic polling data show Specter may be vulnerable Freedberg said Thursday that he had not read the appeals court ruling and could not comment on how he would respond. But Easton attorney Michael Snover, who volun among independents and Republicans." The poll found that Hoeffel, from Montgomery County, did particularly well in the Philadelphia media market and with women and independents after respondents heard the profiles. The committee said Specter's favorableness and job ratings were also lower than incumbents it tested in past election cycles, and that Specter's image among voters is "quite weak." Although poll respondents ff fV-Til re Hoeffel trails in poll, but committee says he can make inroads. By Jeff Miller Call Washington Bureau WASHINGTON The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released polling information Thursday to suggest that Republican Sen. Arlen Specter is vulnerable to Democratic Rep.

Joe Hoeffel. Only 41 percent of the 500 s1 3 V' "A lOjm ALL ALL 1 likely general election voters surveyed said they were likely to vote for Specter in November 2004. The poll found that Specter enjoys a large lead 53 percent to 26 percent over Hoeffel, but that Hoeffel closed the gap within 5 percentage points after respondents were read positive descriptions of both candidates. "More importantly," the committee said in a memo, "HoeffeFs strong profile enables him to re-claim his Democratic base and make inroads 10" 2" Flowering 0" 1 2" Flowering OJ Pricejupjo 1 9.99 fy employment and education." The committee declined to release the entire poll, which was conducted by phone June 10-12. The poll had a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

Political parties typically publicize such poll results to generate excitement among activists and donors and to 0 HSm THESE GREAT SAVINGS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE imumi 1 LLlilllili 4 MATTRESS 1 CO i FLOWERING DAHLIAS HANGING BASKETS ING BASKETS )i from Bulbs 25 Fio Keg. $fCS Huge Selection XM gave Specter relatively high marks for dealing with terrorism, being a strong leader and being effective, they also strongly pegged him as "too much of a politician." "Pollsters can make polls say anything they want, and that's probably what happened here," said Specter spokesman Chris Nicholas, who had not yet read the memo. Frank Custer, a spokesman for Hoeffel, said: "We think it has a lot of positive news in it and Joe is going to focus on the issues health care, un- 1 Beautiful Tl 0 1 0 'Comes Back Every 10.99 each tear AH00 Great $2.99 ea. .1 rr Loiors -jTi Comes ill ff-Safcit sway opinion makers in the media. Specter, seeking his fifth six-year term, is being challenged in the Republican primary by Lehigh Valley Rep.

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