St. Tammany News

Slidell City Court officials hung 15 pictures of historical and religious icons on the courthouse walls Friday in what could be a legal move to keep a controversial Jesus picture from being removed by an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit.

After a religious and legal battle that's caused at least one protest, the court hung the pictures following a 2005 Supreme Court decision that ruled religious iconography cannot stand alone in the public square but can be allowed when grouped with others in a secular and historical context. "The First Amendment allows public officials, and not the ACLU, to decide what is appropriate for acknowledging our nation's legal and culture heritage. The Constitution does not prohibit public building from memorializing the great figures from our history," said Mike Johnson, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the court.

The pictures, which include Moses, English jurist Sir William Blackstone and Charlemagne, a Christian King born in 742, are framed prints hung near a reproduction of the U.S. Constitution.

The ACLU filed suit in June, asking for the removal of the Jesus picture after a receiving several complaints, one written.

The organization said the picture violates the first amendment, specifically the Establishment Clause that says church and state should remain separate.

Slidell City Court officials disagreed. Shortly after the lawsuit, State Rep. A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, organized a protest outside of the courthouse in Olde Towne Slidell. Hundreds attended, hands raised to the sky, shouting "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus."

"The purpose of the display has always been to use art to emphasize the importance of following the law in order to have a peaceful society," Johnson said. "Slidell officials believe this expansion should reassure courthouse users or visitors that this is and always has been the legitimate purpose of the display."

To John Devlin, a professor of constitutional law at Louisiana State University, the Supreme Court's prior rulings make it appear unlikely Slidell City Court will get to keep its framed icon of Jesus.

"The icon is all by itself, and it's hard to read anything but a religious message," he said.

The Supreme Court has used similar reasoning in the past, which allows, for example, the inclusion of Moses holding two blank stone tablets in a frieze on its courthouse. In the relief, Moses is grouped with Confucius and Solon, two other stalwarts of legal history.

Devlin said although the Supreme Court has long stood against religious displays on public ground, some refuse to comply with court rulings until challenged. The clash between Slidell City Court and the ACLU isn't the first time a stake was pounded between religious and state affairs.

In the past 13 years, the ACLU sponsored six federal lawsuits involving religion at Tangipahoa Parish schools.

Last year, a St. Bernard Parish Hurricane Katrina memorial drew fire because the stainless steel crucifix with Jesus' face in the center was a violation of church and state, the ACLU said.

In 2002, Franklinton city officials were forced by the ACLU to remove signs from city infrastructure declaring "Jesus is Lord Over Franklinton."

Brandon Garcia contributed to this report.