Richard Fred Suhrheinrich
- Category : 1936-births
- Type : MGP
- Profile : 5/1 - Heretical / Investigator
- Definition : Split - Small (11,17)
- Incarnation Cross : LAX Revolution 2
Biography
American jurist, a Senior United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit serving in Lansing, Michigan. He had been a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
He made national news on 22 December 2005, when he authored ACLU v. Mercer County, in which an appeals panel of the Sixth Circuit unanimously upheld the continued display of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse. In his opinion, Suhrheinrich stated that the United States Constitution does not demand "a wall of separation between church and state," denying a claim by the ACLU. In addition, he criticized the ACLU's "repeated references to the 'separation of church and state'", stating that "this extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome." Judge Alice Batchelder joined in the opinion, while District Judge Walter Herbert Rice merely concurred in the decision but not the opinion.