A federal appeals court Wednesday upheld a ruling that a Ten Commandments monument must be removed from a city park in Plattsmouth.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a group that focuses on family and religious issues, had asked the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review an earlier ruling by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of Lincoln had rejected the city's argument that the monument is protected by the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom.

The lawsuit in which Kopf ruled was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Plattsmouth resident who says he is an atheist. It alleged that the monument fails to maintain a proper separation between church and state.

The five-foot tall, granite monument lists the Ten Commandments and is emblazoned with two Stars of David, which are symbols of the Jewish faith.

Kopf said the monument "conveys a message that Christianity and Judaism are favored religions."

In Wednesday's ruling, the appeals court said the monument's "message is undeniably religious."

"Although several of the Commandments have secular applications (not stealing comes to mind) the monument presents even these rules with a religious tenor because their putative source is `the LORD thy God,' not the City of Plattsmouth or the courts or another secular source," wrote Judge Kermit Bye. "It is one thing for Plattsmouth to say one should not steal; it is quite another for Plattsmouth to say there is a God who said, `Thou shalt not steal."'

Gene Kapp, spokesman for the American Center for Law and Justice, declined immediate comment, saying his organization was studying the ruling.

The ACLU has criticized similar monuments in Nebraska City and Fremont, but no legal action has been taken against those cities.

More than 4,000 Ten Commandment monuments are displayed in cities around the United States.

Many of them were donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles to courthouses and schools nationwide in the 1950s as part of an evangelical campaign timed to coincide with the release of the movie "The Ten Commandments."

Former Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg was rejected in his attempt to intervene in the Plattsmouth lawsuit.

Stenberg argued that if the monument was ordered taken out, that could open some of the state Capitol's artwork to similar lawsuits.

The Capitol has several frescoes and carvings of a religious nature, including depictions of Moses and Solomon.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower court order that said a Ten Commandments display in Elkhart, Ind., had to be taken down. It has since refused to hear other similar cases.

Alabama, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the Supreme Court case.

They argued the Ten Commandments should not be viewed strictly as a religious document but one that also has historical, cultural, moral and literary qualities.

Some judges have ruled that the Ten Commandments are primarily a religious document, despite their historical value as an antecedent of secular law.

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore placed a 2 1/2-ton Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in 2001 and was ousted last year for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove it. The federal judge found the monument to be an unconstitutional governmental promotion of religion.