<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ec631aa3-3aeb-4f0e-98f7-1397218e704c/563340FD-9A3E-4828-A126-746A5C7B9D9F/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21379" href="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21379" style="font-size: 11px;">www.firstamendmentcenter.org</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21379"><P>A Texas trial court judge did not violate a criminal defendant’s First Amendment free-exercise-of-religion rights when he ordered him to remove his Bible from counsel table, a state appeals court has ruled.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21379">Detwonne Monshay Alexander contended that a trial court judge in Lamar County, Texas, committed constitutional error when he prevented Alexander from prominently displaying the Bible atop his attorney’s table in the courtroom where jurors would see it. </blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=21379"><P>“Without proof to the contrary, simply displaying a Bible on the counsel table does not constitute the ‘exercise’ of religion,” the Texas appeals court wrote. “This act is nothing more than a particular, easily recognized book being prominently displayed to jurors.” The court also noted that the “record contains no showing that Alexander’s religious practice or beliefs required him to prominently display his Bible during trial.”</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/563340FD-9A3E-4828-A126-746A5C7B9D9F/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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