Davis v. Shade
Description: A lawsuit sought to uproot a Ten Commandments monument on the Allegany County courthouse grounds that is nearly identical to one the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2005. A resident of a neighboring county who owns property in Allegany County filed the lawsuit to have the monument removed because he claimed “he is offended” by it.
Ten Commandments monument in Maryland county will stay
BALTIMORE – A Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Allegany County courthouse that is nearly identical to one the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2005 will stay in place after the offended person who sued to uproot it dropped his lawsuit Tuesday.Alliance Defending Freedom and Jones Day attorneys represent the Allegany County commissioners and in June had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but Jeffrey Davis, who resides in a neighboring county but owns property in Allegany County, decided to drop his suit without specifying his reason for doing so.
“The emotional response of an offended passerby doesn’t automatically amount to a violation of the Establishment Clause,” said ADF Senior Counsel Brett Harvey. “Mr. Davis was right to end his quest to uproot this monument, which is virtually identical to a monument in Texas that the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld. Because the county’s monument would survive constitutional scrutiny, we are pleased that it will be able to stay.”
In 1957, the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated the monument, which stands not far from a monument to George Washington. In its 2005 decision in Van Orden v. Perry, the high court upheld the constitutionality of a nearly identical monument, also donated by FOE, on the grounds of the Texas Capitol complex. The court ruled that the monument did not violate the Establishment Clause.
In its 2014 ruling in the ADF case Town of Greece v. Galloway, the Supreme Court questioned the legitimacy of “offended observer” claims, saying that adults “often encounter speech they find disagreeable; and an Establishment Clause violation is not made out any time a person experiences a sense of affront from the expression of contrary religious views….”
Jones Day attorneys Noel Francisco, James Uthmeier, and Kaytlin Roholt are co-counsel on behalf of the county commissioners in the case, Davis v. Shade, which the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has agreed to dismiss.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.
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ABOUT Brett Harvey
Brett Harvey serves as senior counsel and vice president of allied legal affairs with Alliance Defending Freedom. He has assisted state and local governments on issues involving public invocations and religious expression, and he has successfully represented clients in defense of their First Amendment freedoms and the right to life. Harvey and the Allied Legal Affairs team he leads focus on recruitment, professional engagement, and integration of allies into ADF’s advocacy efforts, including coordinating amicus efforts at state supreme courts, circuit courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Harvey earned his J.D. from the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University in Georgia in 1995. He is admitted to the bar in the states of Georgia, Florida, Colorado, and Arizona. Harvey has also been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court; the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the 6th, 9th, 10th, and 11th Circuits; and the U.S. District Court in Colorado. He joined Alliance Defending Freedom in 2000 and has been practicing law since 1995.