CINCINNATI – After several years of negative rulings there now seems to be a sea change shift in how U.S. courts are viewing religious freedom issues, particularly in regard to the public display of the Ten Commandments.

   A systematic campaign led by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other liberal secular groups to eradicate Ten Commandment Decalogues from public life now appears to be on the defensive.

   “I think what we are seeing now is a historic turning of the tide (regarding the outcomes of religious liberty cases),” said Mat Staver, President and General Counsel of the Liberty Counsel, an Orlando, Florida based nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.

   “What we are going to see are more and more Ten Commandments cases popping up all over the country. We already have, but I think that it’s just going to increase,” predicted Staver.

   The Liberty Counsel has been instrumental in fighting for the Ten Commandments and against the ACLU.

   Since two Ten Commandments cases were argued at the Supreme Court last year, public displays of the monuments have enjoyed unprecedented favor in the courts. Additionally state legislatures have been active during the last year in enacting legislation supportive of the laws God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai to govern mankind.

   On April 10, 2006, Kentucky Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher signed a bill allowing the posting of the Ten Commandments. In mid-April Georgia Republican Governor Sonny Purdue signed a bill that permits the display of the Ten Commandments in all Georgia public buildings.

   Ten Commandment displays, ripped from the ground in places like Adams County, Ohio and placed under tarps and moved to back rooms of city buildings elsewhere around the country are now making a comeback. “Oh, no question about it,” Staver told CCN-USA. “They (the Ten Commandments) are doing very well in the courts in the last 12 months.”

   During that time there have been no fewer than three Federal Court of Appeals rulings, all of which have upheld the right to publicly display replicas of the Ten Commandments.

   Liberty Counsel was instrumental in two of the aforementioned cases. Staver revealed that a total of over 30 judges in the last 12 months have upheld the Ten Commandments.

   On April 24th the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal court seated in Cincinnati that governs Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan, upheld an earlier December 2005 court ruling that a Ten Commandments display in Mercer, Ky. was legal.

   In ACLU of Kentucky v. Mercer County, Kentucky the full Sixth Circuit voted by a 19-5 margin that the Mercer County “Foundations of American Law and Government” display met constitutional requirements.

   The Foundations of American Law and Government display in the county courthouse includes the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Charta, the Star-Spangled Banner, the National Motto, the Preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution, and a picture of Lady Justice.

   The Mercer display is identical to the one Liberty Counsel defended at the Supreme Court last year in two other Kentucky counties, McCreary and Pulaski, both of which are still under litigation. “We will be going back to court this summer to work at getting them resolved favorably,” said Staver.

   In the Mercer County case, a three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit applied the same reasoning used by its counterpart, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (which encompasses Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin) when it too upheld a similar display incorporating the Ten Commandments in Books v. Elkhart County (Indiana). Annoyed at the ACLU's "repeated reference to 'the separation of church and state' the Sixth Circuit rejected the ACLU’s contentions in its written decision, adding that, “This extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state." After The ACLU asked the full Court to rehear the case they were even more soundly defeated, as the 19-5 vote upheld the earlier decision.

   Perhaps even more startlingly, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals (which governs AR, IA, MO, MN, NE, ND, and SD) upheld a stand-alone Ten Commandments monument. And on April 20, a federal district court in Toledo, Ohio upheld a Ten Commandments display that had been standing on the courthouse lawn for over 50 years.

   Calling the April 24th ruling a “great victory” Staver emphasized, "Today's decision begins to turn the tide against the ACLU, which has been on a search-and-destroy mission to remove all vestiges of our religious history from public view." Staver added, "Whether the ACLU likes it or not, history is crystal clear that each one of the Ten Commandments played an important role in the founding of our system of law and government.”

   Staver is optimistic that newly appointed judges during the Bush administration are more faithfully applying the constitution as originally construed by the nation’s founding fathers as opposed to past trends of legislating from the bench.

   “Federal courts are beginning to rightfully reject extreme notions of 'separation of church and state.' With the changing of personnel at the U.S. Supreme Court, the trend toward a more historical approach to the First Amendment is well underway."

   High Court appointees made by President George W. Bush – Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel a. Alito, Jr. – have broken the two decade liberal lock on the nation’s highest court.

   “In Church/State issues and the Ten Commandments we can divide history between ‘Before and After O’Connor’, said Staver. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was widely regarded as the “swing vote” on the Court.

   Staver held out optimism that cases the Supreme Court has previously refused to get involved in – such as the Adams County, Ohio and Alabama Ten Commandments monuments, both parts of larger historical document displays – may now be revisited by the revamped High Court.

   “I think that it’s a different ballgame now without O’Connor on the bench,” Staver said. “It’s a different world out there with regard to Church/State issues. Religious liberties in general are starting to win. We’re gaining major ground. We’re making great headway.”

   An additional benefit of the new Court’s composition according to Staver is that the ACLU is no longer challenging every pro-Christian decision made in the lower courts.

   “They’re not asking the Supreme Court to get involved because O’Connor’s no longer there and there’s a new court,” Staver explained. “The tide is turning against the ACLU’s war on the Ten Commandments. The courts and history are working against the ACLU.”

   Staver emphasized that after years of seeming endless suppression the near miraculous turn in how the Courts are now interpreting religious freedom underscores two key principles for all Christians and conservatives.

   “We have to elect the right people. The right people then appoint the right judges, and the right justices rule fairly and correctly.

   “And Christians must continue to be persistent and persevere. These kinds of victories couldn’t have happened twenty years ago, but they’re happening now.”