DENVER—A divided 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a request to reconsider a ruling that a display of the Ten Commandments outside an Oklahoma courthouse endorses religion.
A three-judge panel of the Denver-based court ruled in June that comments by Haskell County, Okla., commissioners and the display have the effect of endorsing religion when taken in the context of the small community of Stigler, where the display sits.
In a 6-6 vote announced Thursday, the 10th Circuit denied a request for a rehearing before all the judges on the court.
In a 35-page dissenting opinion, Judge Paul J. Kelly said the smaller panel’s ruling misinterprets the intent of the Constitution and makes a different law that applies only in “small town America.”
