Another Battle for the Rough Rider

President Theodore Roosevelt may be long gone, but his words still pack a punch in Riverside County.

The Anti-Defamation League and a Christian attorney from Temecula are locked in a legal fight over a Roosevelt quote carved into a mahogany wall of the historic County Courthouse.

The passage -- “The true Christian is the true citizen” -- is one of four presidential quotes engraved on the walls of a courtroom primarily used to hear civil cases.

The league received a complaint about the quote from a court visitor and contacted the county last month. The quote is on the rear wall, over the court’s entryway, and faces the judge and the witness stand.

“The quote is exclusionary toward those not of the Christian faith,” said Susan Stengel, counsel for the group’s Los Angeles office. “We would have to explore our options if the county decides to leave it as is.”

The county initially decided this week to cover the words with a mahogany panel, but suspended that decision Friday after Temecula attorney Richard Ackerman filed suit Thursday against the county, the league and Superior Court Presiding Judge Douglas Miller.

“You shouldn’t be singling out Christian quotes for censorship, and you shouldn’t be altering historic landmarks to accomplish censorship purposes,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman, who also serves as a small-claims court judge in the courthouse and describes himself as a Christian lawyer, said a hearing is scheduled Monday, during which he will seek a court order to prevent the county from covering the quote until the matter is decided.

However, the judge who was set to preside over the hearing has recused herself, and the other judges in the courthouse are expected to do the same. The matter will likely be transferred to a court in another county.

The beaux-arts style courthouse in downtown Riverside was built in 1903 and expanded in the 1930s. Department 8, where the quote is engraved, was part of that expansion. Quotes by Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson also adorn its walls.

The objection over Roosevelt’s quote is one of the latest challenges to religious references in local government. Threatened with lawsuits, Los Angeles County stripped a cross from its seal in September; Redlands removed a cross from the city logo in April. UCLA constitutional law expert Eugene Volokh said he believed the quote could withstand a legal challenge because it is just one of a series of presidential quotes engraved on the courtroom wall.

He cited a 1989 Supreme Court ruling that found a creche in a Pennsylvania court to be unconstitutional, but said a Christmas tree and a menorah in a government setting were acceptable.

“The Roosevelt quote is one of four quotes. In context, a reasonable observer would see historical quotes from various presidents,” Volokh said.

He noted, however, that the seven words on the courtroom wall are a fragment of a longer Roosevelt quotation that exhorts Christians to be good citizens, making the engraving open to misinterpretation.

The entire quote is: “The true Christian is the true citizen, lofty of purpose, resolute in endeavor, ready for a hero’s deeds, but never looking down on his task because it is cast in the day of small things; scornful of baseness, awake to his own duties as well as to his rights, following the higher law with reverence, and in this world doing all that in him lies, so that when death comes he may feel that mankind is in some degree better because he has lived.”

The league says it does not object to the full quote.

On Friday, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in New York City offered to pay to engrave the full 84-word statement on the courtroom’s wall.