Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano joined Monday with a group that promotes what it calls "pro family'' legislation in Arizona in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let a 6-foot-tall monument of the Ten Commandments remain in a public park across the street from the state Capitol.

The brief, filed by the Center for Arizona Policy, said these kinds of monuments have "a valid secular purpose.'' Peter Gentala, the organization's legal counsel, got not only the governor to join in the plea but also Secretary of State Jan Brewer and 38 of the 90 state lawmakers.

Officially, the case before the nation's high court relates to a monument in Austin. A federal appeals court has rejected efforts to have it removed.

But there is a virtually identical monument in Wesley Bolin Park, directly east of the House and Senate buildings. Any ruling on the legality of the Texas monument will determine the fate of its Phoenix counterpart.

The decision by Napolitano came as no surprise to Eleanor Eisenberg, director of the Arizona Civil Liberties Union.

She noted the governor opposed efforts by her organization two years ago to have the monument removed. But a lawsuit threatened at that time has been held in abeyance awaiting the outcome of the Texas case.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments March 2.

Tim Nelson, the governor's chief counsel, said Napolitano does not believe the monument amounts to a state endorsement of religion, something prohibited by the First Amendment.

"It's one of many, many monuments out there'' in Wesley Bolin Park, Nelson said. Other monuments in the park include one to Armenians who the display said were martyred in Turkey early in the last century and another to Jewish war veterans.

"One is not more prominent than the other,'' Nelson said. Gentala, in his legal papers, said there is no reason to move the Arizona monument.

"Like Texas, the people of Arizona, by the decision of their elected officials, display a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of their State Capitol,'' he wrote. "Arizona's Ten Commandments monument is one of the many ways the State acknowledges the role of religious faith in the lives of its citizens.''

Gentala also noted that the state expressly acknowledges the existence of God: The state seal bears the motto Ditat Deus , which translates to "God enriches.''

What the U.S. Supreme Court will do in this case is unclear.

Four years ago, the justices refused to disturb a ruling by a different federal appellate court that concluded a similar monument had to go. It stood in front of the municipal building at Elkhart, Ind.

At that time, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that one thing that convinced him the monument was religious and not secular is that the First Commandment, "I AM the LORD thy God,'' was larger than the following nine.

"The graphic emphasis placed on those first lines is rather hard to square with the proposition that the monument expresses no particular religious preference," Stevens wrote.

The Arizona monument, dedicated in 1964, is etched in the sam way. And, like the Indiana monument, it also has two Stars of David and a symbol composed of the Greek letters "chi'' and "rho'' superimposed on each other that Stevens said represents Christ.

But in 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to disturb a Colorado Supreme Court decision that allowed the Ten Commandments to remain on the Colorado Capitol grounds.

The Arizona monument orignally was located right next to the existing Capitol buildings. It was accepted at a ceremony by then-Gov. Paul Fannin, with Catholic, Protestant and Jewish representatives in attendance.

The Phoenix Gazette reported at the time that the monument was one of many the Eagles had purchased, at $500 apiece, to give to state governments across the nation.

It was moved across the street to the newly dedicated park more than a decade later.