Supreme's Nine Will Consider Almighty's Ten
by Allie Martin and Jody Brown
October 12, 2004
(AgapePress) - The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the Constitution allows the public display of the Ten Commandments on government land and buildings. Lower courts have yielded conflicting rulings that allow displays in some instances but not in others.In a surprise announcement, the high court said today that it will hear an appeal early next year involving displays in Kentucky and Texas. The Kentucky case centers on whether a lower court wrongly barred the posting of the Ten Commandments in two state courthouses and in school buildings. In the Texas case, justices will decide if a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds in Austin is an unconstitutional attempt to establish state-sponsored religion.
Until now, Supreme Court justices had repeatedly refused to revisit issues raised by their 1980 ruling barring copies of the Decalogue from public school classrooms. But controversy surrounding Ten Commandments displays -- and sharply divided court decisions concerning the constitutionality of such displays -- have left the public confused. Currently four federal circuit courts and one state supreme court hold that displays of the Ten Commandments are constitutional; but three federal circuit courts hold the opposite view, that they are unconstitutional.
Mat Staver is president of Liberty Counsel, which is representing three counties (Harlan, McCreary, and Pulaski ) in the Kentucky case. The attorney says the Ten Commandments are part of the nation's history
Mat Staver | |
"To erase the Ten Commandments would be like throwing away part of our American history and our heritage, which includes our religious heritage," Staver offers. "The Ten Commandments was never considered by our founding fathers and the drafters of the First Amendment to be inconsistent with the Constitution."Barry W. Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State tells Associated Press that he hopes the court uses the cases to declare government displays of religious documents and symbols unconstitutional. "It's clear that the Ten Commandments is a religious document," he says. "Its display is appropriate in houses of worship but not at the seat of government."
Staver disagrees. The Liberty Counsel president believes the Ten Commandments belong in a display of historical documents that are important to America's foundation -- much like the Kentucky counties had done. And he accuses those who seek to remove the Commandments from public display of "engaging in the worst kind of historical revisionism."
According to Staver, the case is breaking new ground with today's decision. "The amazing thing is that even though the courts have split all over the map on the Ten Commandments matter, the Supreme Court has never actually heard argument on a Ten Commandments case."
He explains that the 1980 Ten Commandments case involved full briefing or even oral arguments. "So this will really be the first case in the court's history in which it's taken a Ten Commandments case where it will be fully briefed and fully argued," Staver says.
The high court will rule on the issue by next June. The cases involved are Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ACLU.
Associated Press contributed to this article.
