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Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, used an analogy to describe what he said was the government's endorsement of religion through the Ten Commandments displays.

"If a judge in the state of Kentucky were to put up a sign in his courtroom that said smoke Marlboro Lights, I think everybody who saw it would say 'That judge is promoting the use of tobacco,'" Lynn said. "So why do people think it would be any different when the Kentucky sign is a framed display of the Ten Commandments and the Texas monument at issue ... is a six-foot high monument shaped as tablets and inscribed with the words of Ten Commandments? In my view, there's no difference at all ..."

Lynn told his National Press Club audience that Americans should consider the context and the content of displays in question. "I'd say that ... any reasonable observer would reach the conclusion that the government which owns those displays is embracing, promoting, and endorsing the images and messages that it has deliberately chosen to display," Lynn said, adding that such promotion is unconstitutional.

"It is a religious document. It is a statement for Christians and Jews of the demands of religious law. When governments promote it, they are deliberately advancing a particular religious viewpoint," Lynn continued. "How could anything be more obviously religious?"

Mat Staver, president and general counsel of the Liberty Counsel, will present arguments before the Supreme Court in favor of the Kentucky wall postings. Staver will reportedly propose that a new standard be formulated in cases involving church and state issues. The new standard, according to Staver, would distinguish between government acknowledgement of religion, which is allowed, and government establishment of religion, which is unconstitutional.

Although the Alabama Supreme Court rejected Moore's appeal for reinstatement last April, the former state chief justice has filed his own brief with the U.S. Supreme Court, supporting the two framed displays in Kentucky, according to news reports.

Secular groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and religious groups like the Hindu American Foundation and Anti-Defamation League have reportedly filed briefs with the court arguing against the public display of Ten Commandments symbols.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue its rulings on the Texas and Kentucky appeals in June.

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