A Boise attorney working with the American Civil Liberties Union to protest Bannock County's Ten Commandments monument says he was fired by his law firm over taking the case.
He said he may sue to win his job back.Bernard Zaleha, formerly of the Boise and Twin Falls law firm of Rosholt, Robertson and Tucker, agreed this fall to represent Idaho State University graduate student Andrew Albanese. He wants to force Bannock County to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the grounds of the courthouse, claiming it violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
Similar monuments exist in more than half of Idaho's counties.
But in taking the ACLU job, which he is doing for no pay, Zaleha has separated from his employers of more than a year because "they didn't want to be associated with the controversy."
Zaleha said the termination came after "I agreed that I would not associate the firm's name in any way, shape or form, so there would be no suggestion that the firm in any way was aligning itself" with Albanese's efforts.
"But I further indicated to them that I would exercise my own free speech rights as I view them," he said. "I felt I had rights they could not interfere with" if he used his own letterhead, office and time for the work.
John Rosholt, who heads Zaleha's former firm from his Twin Falls office, said Zaleha applied for unemployment benefits after leaving the firm "and we responded by offering him his job back."
Beyond that, Rosholt had no comment. "It's a matter between Zaleha and the firm and it just doesn't need public review," he said.
Albanese said he was turned down by several lawyers in Pocatello when looking for someone to take his case against the county last summer.