Court allows ban on ad with Decalogue

Christian Century, May 3, 2000

The U.S. Supreme Court on April 17 refused to rule against a California school district's rejection of an ad containing the Ten Commandments on a high school baseball field sign. The court let stand a ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that said the Southern California school district did not infringe on religious freedom in prohibiting a local businessman from posting the Ten Commandments on the 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 $400 ad to benefit the Downey High School baseball booster club. 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 "impermissible 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 Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld those rulings. The decision by the Supreme Court essentially affirmed those decisions. The appeals court had ruled in November that the baseball field fence is "a forum limited to certain subjects and not open for indiscriminate use by the general public." In addition, it ruled that the district is free to exclude subjects "that would be disruptive to the educational purposes of the school."