U.S. federal court resurrects Ten Commandments monument lawsuit
An appeals court has ruled that a parent has legal standing to seek the removal of a Ten Commandments monument in front of a school in Pennsylvania.
In its ruling, the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit filed by parent Marie Schaub who filed the case in 2012 together with the atheist Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) against the New Kensington Arnold School District over the monument at Valley Junior-Senior High School.
The lawsuit said the monument violated the Establishment Clause under the First Amendment.
In the decision, the appeals court said U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry wrongfully dismissed the case as Schaub only had infrequent contact with the Ten Commandments monument, Trib Live reported.
"A community member like Schaub may establish standing by showing direct, unwelcome contact with the allegedly offending object or event, regardless of whether such contact is infrequent or she does not alter her behavior to avoid it," said Judge Patty Shwartz who penned the decision.
Schaub said she is "very pleased the Court of Appeals has reversed the lower court's ruling on standing and we're looking forward to having our case heard on its merits."
"We are prepared to take this case to the [U.S. Supreme Court] and urge the District to relocate this religious monument to an appropriate location to save the taxpayers from wasting any more money on this unconstitutional endorsement of religion," she said.
However, the court ruled that Schaub's daughter did not have legal standing in the case.
The daughter was transferred to another school to avoid getting in contact with the monument.
In remanding the case, the appeals court told the district court to rule whether Schaub was a member of the FFRF when the case was filed.
"If anybody has suffered injury by the presence of a Ten Commandments monolith at this community high school, it is Marie Schaub and her daughter, whose lives and education have been disrupted just for speaking up for the First Amendment," claimed FFRF co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor.
