May 8, 2000
Court allows ban of Commandments ad
___WASHINGTON (RNS)--The Supreme Court has refused to rule against a California school district's rejection of an ad containing the Ten Commandments on a high school baseball field.
___The court let stand a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that said the Southern California school district did not infringe on religious freedom by not allowing a local businessman to post the Ten Commandments on a baseball field sign.
___Because the court dismissed the case without hearing it or issuing a formal decision, no legal precedent was set.
___Edward DiLoreto, who owns a local engineering firm, wanted to buy the ad from the Downey High School baseball booster club for $400.
___The ad would have posted the Ten Commandments and said, "Meditate on these principles to live by."
___The school district rejected the ad, along with a proposed ad by Planned Parenthood, and DiLoreto sued for "impermissable viewpoint-based discrimination." DiLoreto and his lawyers claimed the school board was using "misguided ideas about their responsibilities with respect to the separation of church and state."
___State and federal courts ruled against DiLoreto, and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld those rulings.
___The appeals court had ruled in November that the baseball field fence was "a forum limited to certain subjects and not open for indiscriminate use by the general public." In addition, it ruled the district was free to exclude subjects "that would be disruptive to the educational purposes of the school."
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