What's happened: On March 31, 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from a 2007 10th Circuit decision concerning private donations of monuments to local governments. The court, analyzing the case under the "free speech" clause of the First Amendment, held that if a city accepts a privately donated monument and places it in a public park, then the city must accept any and all donated monuments for placement in the park, even if the city has a reasonable justification for refusing to do so. In this case, Pleasant Grove City, Utah, placed several donated monuments, statues and plaques in a city park over the years relating to the city's pioneer heritage, including a Ten Commandments monument. When the city refused the donation of a monument containing the "Seven Aphorisms" of the Summum religion because it did not relate to the city's history, it was sued. The 10th Circuit held that the city's reason was inadequate, and that the city would need a "compelling interest" to refuse any donated monument.
The 10th Circuit got the "free speech" issue wrong: The court surprisingly disregarded numerous court decisions from around the country holding that permanent monuments are "government speech," not "private speech," and the government is able, under settled First Amendment law, to determine what the content of its own "speech" will be. The city's right to refuse the Summum monument should have been upheld.
Why you should care: If the 10th Circuit decision and reasoning are upheld by the Supreme Court, then cities and towns all over the country will be forced to make a terrible choice: either remove all donated monuments (including all of the donated Ten Commandments monuments across the country) or allow public parks to become cluttered with every objectionable monument and message that can possibly be imagined.
What happens next? The Supreme Court will schedule this case to be heard sometime in the next term of that court, which begins on October 6, 2008.
For more information: The Supreme Court docket number is 07-665, and information on the status of the Supreme Court proceeding can be found at http://www.supremecourtus.gov/docket/07-665.htm
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion being appealed in this case can be found at http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=10th&navby=case&no=064057&exact=1
