Gibson County hopes it will win a reprieve from a federal court order to remove its Ten Commandments monument with a favorable ruling in similar cases argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The county Tuesday appealed to the 7th U.S. Circuit of Appeals to overrule federal Judge Richard L. Young's Jan. 31 order that it must remove the monument from the lawn of its courthouse in Princeton within 60 days.

Gibson County also asked Young to put his order on hold pending the appeal.

Were it not for Wednesday's oral arguments in Washington - the first time since 1980 the Supreme Court has taken up the issue - Gibson County would have removed its monument by the April 1 deadline set by the judge, the county's attorney, Jerry Stilwell, said Wednesday.

"We recognize what the precedent is in the 7th Circuit. If the Supreme Court was not hearing this case (Wednesday), chances are we would not have initiated the appeal," Stilwell said.

Ten Commandments battles in Indiana have contributed to that precedent. The appeals court in December 2000 declared a monument outside the Elkhart City Hall violated the constitution. It also ruled in July 2001 that a monument that was to be erected on the lawn of the Indiana Statehouse amounted to state endorsement of religion even though it also would have included the preambles of the Indiana Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

The attorney for the two plaintiffs in the Gibson County case filed written arguments Wednesday opposing any delay in removing the monument.

"I think the plaintiffs demonstrated they are forced to confront something that violates the First Amendment," said Ken Falk, legal director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. "We've won at this point, and it's up to Gibson County to demonstrate something extraordinary as to why the judgment should not go into effect pending their appeal."

Falk filed a motion Feb. 14 asking Judge Young to order Gibson County to pay the ICLU's costs and attorney fees associated with the case, totalling $14,966.44 as of that date.

Falk represents Darrel Gene Russelburg and Deborah Nally.

Falk and Stilwell agreed the appeals court likely would wait for the Supreme Court's ruling before considering the case from Gibson County.

The Supreme Court cases drew more than 50 "friend-of-the-court" briefs, including one submitted by Indiana on behalf of itself and 17 other states. It argued, in the Texas case, that religion can play an important role in a government's cultural heritage.

Thomas Fisher, a special counsel for the Indiana attorney general's office who wrote the brief, helped prepare Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for the oral arguments and attended Wednesday's proceedings.

"It's going to be very close as to how these things come out, as they always are," Fisher said.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Congressman John Hostettler hoped to intervene to prevent the Gibson County monument from being removed by writing a letter to President George W. Bush. Hostettler asked the president to withhold federal funding for enforcement of unlawful federal court rulings.

"We have the authority to constrain activist judges," he told Gibson County residents at a rally to save the monument two years ago."We have a constitutional obligation...it means that the monument can stay. If the federal court orders it to be removed, its ruling is in conflict with our great Constitution," he said.