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Court enters debate over display of Commandments By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON The Ten Commandments are a recurring symbol in American government: carved into granite monuments at state capitols, framed on the walls of county buildings and painted on murals at courthouses. At the U.S. Supreme Court, a depiction of Moses holding the Commandments is etched into marble, part of a frieze on history's great lawgivers.
But in a nation that prohibits government from endorsing religion, do some public displays of the Commandments the principles of behavior for Christians and Jews violate the Constitution? It's a legal question that has been brewing for years, and one that now is the focus of a national debate over religion's role in government. Today, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments in two cases that test whether displays of the Commandments on public property are unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The disputes come from Texas and Kentucky, where federal courts have issued conflicting rulings. (Analysis: Court unlikely to make more historic moves) In the Kentucky case, however, a federal court ordered McCreary and Pulaski counties to take down framed copies of the Ten Commandments that had been put up in their courthouses in 1999. The court said the displays were blatantly religious and therefore unconstitutional even after officials twice added other documents, including the Declaration of Independence and the Magna Carta. The cases have drawn intense interest from across the nation. Sixty "friend of the court" briefs have been filed by groups representing religious interests, civil libertarians, historians and state governments. This morning's hearing is expected to draw long lines for the few visitors' seats in the ornate courtroom. The disputes come to the court three years after an Alabama judge, Roy Moore, gained national attention by installing a 5,300-pound granite monument depicting the Commandments in the state's judicial building in Montgomery. Moore's defiance of a federal court order to remove the monument cost him his job as chief justice of Alabama's Supreme Court. The monument was wheeled away in 2003. Many of the issues raised by Moore's efforts haven't gone away, however. Some evangelical Christians are casting the debate over the Commandments as a significant part of their increasingly aggressive efforts to have government recognize religion. That's led to a backlash by the ACLU, atheists and others who say the efforts by evangelicals threaten America's secular heritage. |
