A federal judge said Wednesday that the Summum religious group is likely to win a suit seeking to put its Seven Aphorisms next to the Ten Commandments in a Duchesne park, but stopped short of issuing a ruling.
Instead, U.S. District Judge Dee Benson urged lawyers for the Salt Lake City-based church and the city to negotiate over whether a monument stating the Summum beliefs can be erected in Roy Park. He gave them until July 4 to report back.
The judge said possible settlements include granting a parcel to Summum, clarifying that the Ten Commandments monument at the park's edge is now on private land by building a fence around it, or removing the monolith.
The lawyer for the church said after the hearing that the best resolution is for Duchesne to give Summum a 10-foot-by-11-foot plot -- the same size as the site of the Ten Commandments monolith, which was donated to the city 25 years ago -- on which to build its own monument.
Attorney Brian Barnard and Corky Ra, Summum president, both said forcing removal of the Ten Commandments is not the goal. Rather, it's spreading the word about the Summum religion.
"It's enlightenment," Ra said.
Lawyers for Duschesne contend the city has no obligation to provide space for the Summum tenets because it transferred the Ten Commandments and its land to a private group and no longer provides a public forum for anyone.
Summum sued Duschesne last fall over its refusal to allow its aphorisms in the park, citing previous court rulings that said if a government entity allows one group to erect a monument containing religious ideas, it must allow all organizations to do the same.
City officials countered that shortly before the suit was filed by transferring the Ten Commandments site to the Lions Club in return for $10 and 10,000 hours of already-performed beautification services. City Attorney Cindy Barton-Coombs said Summum members were told they could obtain a plot for themselves under the same conditions, but they declined.
Barnard argued that the transfer was "a sweet deal" that gave the Lions Club a special privilege over other private groups and said the monument still has the appearance of being part of a public park.
Benson also said he was bothered by how the transaction was handled, noting the mayor and the Lions president are the same person.
He described the land transfer as "kind of a cute trick."
Summum, founded in 1975, is based on Egyptian customs and includes winemaking and mummification among its practices.