RUPERT, Idaho (AP) - An American Legion chapter in this southern Idaho city says recent U.S. Supreme Court action that in some cases allows displaying the Ten Commandments on public property bolsters its ambitions for such a monument at the local courthouse.

The effort to erect a marker engraved with the biblical laws stalled two years ago when Minidoka County commissioners ruled the sale of publicly owned real estate at the site would be illegal.

Now, it's back, with supporters at the George E. Marshall American Legion Post basing their renewed bid on the high court's May 27 ruling that the legality of having the Ten Commandments on government property should be settled on a case-by-case basis. This is at least the second effort in Idaho to erect a monument based on the court's decision.

"I think it's about time," said Don Murray, an official with the veterans organization who promoted the effort in 2003. "I think it's the right thing."

In two rulings, both 5-4, the justices held that Ten Commandments displays in Kentucky courthouses cross the line between separation of church and state, but that it is constitutionally permissible to display the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, where there are 17 monuments.

In some instances, monuments depicting the laws that many Christians believe God gave to Moses at Mount Sinai are allowed if they transcend their religious significance, the court wrote.

With talk of reviving the Rupert effort, lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union in Boise, located about 200 miles to the northwest, say they'll likely sue if the Minidoka County Commission were to acquiesce this time around.

"If new monuments were to be placed in Idaho, there could be some litigation," said the ACLU's Marty Durand. "If the purpose is to promote religion, that's something we would oppose."

Despite claims by monument backers that the Supreme Court decision underpins their argument, some local officials aren't so sure. County Commission Chairman Dan Stapelman favors a marker - but said the ruling is confusing.

"It seems to me they (the justices) were a little ambiguous," Stapelman said. "They kind of went down two roads."

In addition to the Rupert effort, a Boise-based group - the Keep the Commandments Coalition - is trying to persuade members of the Boise City Council to return a 40-year-old Ten Commandments monument to a city park.

The granite marker was removed from Julia Davis Park in March 2004 as city officials moved to block a Kansas preacher from erecting an anti-homosexual monument of his own.

The preacher, Fred Phelps of the Topeka, Kan.-based Westboro Baptist Church, also tried to place an anti-gay monument at the Minidoka County Courthouse at the time of the 2003 Ten Commandments drive. That's something promoters of the current effort say they hope to avoid.

"I just hope that preacher from Kansas doesn't get involved again," Murray said.