WASHINGTON

ADL OPPOSED TO TEN COMMANDMENTS DISPLAYS ON PUBLIC PROPERTY

The Anti-Defamation League joined the ranks yesterday of groups urging the Supreme Court to declare that the display of the Ten Commandments on public property is unconstitutional.

In an amicus brief filed in cases involving displays of the Decalogue in Kentucky and Texas, the ADL said those state governments impermissibly mixed church and state by choosing particular versions of the biblical edict.

“The Ten Commandments are a quintessentially religious document. They’re not something that can be easily secularized,” said the legal director of the ADL, Steven Freeman. “We’re not hostile to religion. It’s really a question of, out of respect for religion, we believe separation is the best way.”

While the cases before the court involve specific texts of the Ten Commandments, sculptures and paintings in many public buildings depict Moses with stone tablets that are either blank or are inscribed only with roman numerals. Mr. Freeman said his group had not focused on those scenarios.

In a separate brief, the American Legion asked the justices not to issue a ruling in the Ten Commandments cases that would throw into question the legality of the numerous military monuments that include religious themes.

“We want to make sure that isn’t some tool that is used to start sandblasting our war memorials,” said an attorney for the veterans’ group, Hiram Sasser III. “Religion plays an important reason why people are willing to die for others or something greater than themselves.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

SIDELINED BY CANCER, CHIEF JUSTICE BOWS OUT ON SOME VOTING

The chief justice of the Supreme Court, William Rehnquist, has cut back on his workload while receiving treatment for thyroid cancer, a spokeswoman for the high court said yesterday.

Mr. Rehnquist, 80, has been absent from the bench for almost two months but is working from home and receiving briefings on arguments he missed. Only very limited information about his condition has been released.

Until yesterday, Mr. Rehnquist had participated in every decision. After two rulings were released that did not include votes by Mr. Rehnquist, a Supreme Court spokeswoman, Kathy Arberg, issued a statement saying the chief justice will not participate in decisions from the dozen cases heard in November unless the remaining eight justices are deadlocked. He does plan to vote in cases argued in December, she said. The Supreme Court thus begins a nearly month long holiday with no clear information about Mr. Rehnquist’s future and his ability to continue working. Despite Ms. Arberg’s statement, some court observers are skeptical Mr. Rehnquist will be able to continue. They pointed out that when Mr. Rehnquist’s illness was disclosed in late October, the statement that accompanied it said he would be back on the bench the next week.

– Associated Press

NORTHEAST

BARNES COLLECTION CAN RELOCATE

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. – Art lovers will soon be saying goodbye to the quirkily intimate setting of the Barnes Foundation’s legendary art collection housed in suburban Philadelphia, the Web site of the New York Times reported last night.

A judge in Montgomery County ruled yesterday that the financially strapped Barnes Foundation could relocate its collection of masterpieces to a more accessible museum quarter in downtown Philadelphia from its current location at Merion, Pa., the Web site reported. The judge’s ruling was reportedly supported by pledges of $150 million in financial support from three Philadelphia-area foundations that would give the Barnes Foundation a chance to avoid bankruptcy and salvage its prized art legacy. The ruling was needed to circumvent the charter and bylaws drawn up by the Barnes’s founder, Albert Barnes, who made millions of dollars in the patent-medicine industry. His rules included stipulations that no picture in his collection could be lent, sold, or moved on the walls of the galleries he built in neo-Classical style back in the mid-1920s. Barnes also limited access to his collection of some 170 Renoirs, 55 Cezannes, and 20 Picassos by allowing only 1,200 visitors per week to enter the galleries. Barnes’s rules seemed to heighten the museum’s cult appeal.

According to the newspaper’s Web site, the Barnes Foundation has spent much of the last decade sinking into a desperate financial situation. The organizations that pledged money to rescue the Barnes Foundation are the Annenberg Foundation, the Lenfest Foundation, and the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Times Web site also reported that the city of Philadelphia supported the collection’s relocation in an effort to bolster a downtown revitalization. City officials cited a study that indicated 260,000 people would visit the Barnes downtown location in the first year, roughly four times the 64,000 visitors who make it to the Merion site each year.

The proposed move was heavily opposed by art students at the Barnes. The Web site reported that attorneys representing the foundation’s students are looking into the possibility of an appeal of the judge’s decision.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

NORTHWEST

WRECKED FREIGHTER’S OIL SPILL NOT AS LARGE AS FEARED

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Coast Guard officials yesterday said an oil and fuel spill from a freighter that broke in two when it ran aground off Alaska’s coast probably amounted to thousands of gallons less than had been feared.

The federal government’s incident commander, Captain Ron Morris, said just 41,138 gallons of bunker fuel were inside the tank directly breached when the Malaysian soybean freighter Selendang Ayu split in two Wednesday on an Unalaska Island shoal. Coast Guard officials last week said they thought the 140,000-gallon tank had been full. Determining which tanks remain intact is a key part of developing a plan to offload remaining oil and eventually remove the freighter’s bow and stern sections. The ship was carrying 483,000 gallons of heavy bunker oil and about 21,000 gallons of diesel fuel when it ran aground.

Officials said a tank with 104,448 gallons of bunker oil had apparently also been breached, but that no large-scale leak was believed to be occurring there. Virtually no oil has been recovered. The vessel Redeemer attempted skimming operations with equipment geared to heavy oil, said Gary Folley, the state’s on-scene coordinator. Recovery officials have detected few animals affected by the spill.

– Associated Press