Frederick Defends Ten Commandments Sale in Federal Court

BALTIMORE (AP) - Frederick Mayor Jennifer P. Dougherty denied in federal court Tuesday that a Ten Commandments monument on private land inside a public park constitutes an illegal city endorsement of a religious display.

But the plaintiff in a lawsuit seeking the monument's removal testified that the city's sale of the parcel to the Fraternal Order of Eagles in December 2002 was a "scam" that left church and state entwined.

"It's still there. I see it every day and it's still part of the park," Roy J. Chambers said under direct examination by his lawyer, Benjamin C. Block, of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles will rule on the dispute after Feb. 22, the date by which lawyers must submit written final arguments.

Chambers, a Frederick resident, filed the lawsuit in June 2003, six months after the city sold the 12-by-50-foot strip to the local Fraternal Order of Eagles chapter.

Dougherty testified that the transaction achieved her goal of averting a court battle with the American Civil Liberties Union, which dropped a lawsuit against the city after the sale plan was announced.

"We believed then, as we do now, that we should try not to fight over the Ten Commandments but to live by them," Dougherty said under direct examination by the city's attorney, Michael T. Hamilton.

But the city ended up in court, anyway, joined at the defendants' table by the pro-religion American Center for Law and Justice, which is representing the Eagles.

ACLJ attorney Francis J. Manion said after the hearing that there was never a constitutional problem with the monument's location, despite Chambers' claim that it violates the First Amendment ban on state-sponsored religion.

Much of the trial testimony involved the land-sale bidding process, with Block trying to show that the Eagles got favorable treatment. The city didn't advertise the sale and the Eagles' $6,700 bid was the lowest of four submitted, according to Patrick E. Keegin, the city's facilities administrator. He and Dougherty testified that the price was less important than the buyer's ability to maintain the site.

Dougherty said the process met the "spirit" of a written plan for disposing of city-owned property. She said the plan was written specifically to govern sales of land along Carroll Creek, a commercial development corridor downtown that doesn't include the park where the Ten Commandments marker stands.

The 5-foot granite monument is one of about 200 that the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated to municipalities around the country for public display in the late 1950s and early '60s. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments March 2 on a Texas case involving another such monument.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)