June (Web-only) 2005

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This morning's breaking news e-mail from CNN illustrates the confusion surrounding the posting of the Ten Commandments on public property. "Following ruling barring Ten Commandments displays in courthouses, Supreme Court rules such displays are allowed at state capitols." The mistake is being repeated elsewhere, too. One would think that the Court took up the two cases—one from Texas, the other from Kentucky—in order to provide some clarity. If CNN and a host of other media outlets are any indication, the Court did anything but.

A lower court rejected that display, and the county tried again. "The new posting, entitled "The Foundations of American Law and Government Display," consists of nine framed documents of equal size. One sets out the Commandments explicitly identified as the "King James Version," quotes them at greater length, and explains that they have profoundly influenced the formation of Western legal thought and this nation."

But the lower court held, and the Supreme Court upheld, that the monument was religious rather than secular. "The counties' asserted educational goals crumbled upon an examination of this litigation's history. Affirming, the Sixth Circuit stressed that, under Stone [v. Graham], displaying the Commandments bespeaks a religious object unless they are integrated with a secular message. The Court saw no integration here because of a lack of a demonstrated analytical or historical connection between the Commandments and the other documents."

It's okay, when no one objects for a long time On the other hand, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling which allowed a 6-foot Commandments monument to stay on the Texas state capitol grounds. The Fraternal Order of Eagles gave the monument ...