Court Decisions on the Ten Commandments
Promoting Religion and Religious Doctrines
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Should displays of the Ten Commandments be allowed in public buildings? Should large monuments be erected on the grounds of courthouses or legislative buildings? Should there be posters of the Ten Commandments in schools and other municipal buildings? Some argue that they are part of our legal history, but others contend that they are inherently religious and, therefore, cannot be allowed.
Glassroth v. Moore (2002)
Roy Moore installed a huge granite monument to the Ten Commandments in Alabama, saying that their presence would help to remind people that God was sovereign over them and over the laws of the nation. A District Court, however, found that his actions were an obvious violation of the separation of church and state, ordering him to remove the monument.O'Bannon v. Indiana Civil Liberties Union (2001)
The Supreme Court refused to hear a case about a large monument in Indiana which would have included the Ten Commandments. What was the original 7th Circuit Court decision, and why did they reach that conclusion? What does this mean for future cases?Books v. Elkhart (2000)
Are the Ten Commandments a secular or a religious document? Just how far can a government go in displaying the Ten Commandments? Can large, expensive monuments to the Ten Commandments be erected on public property by arguing that they played a role in the development of secular laws and, hence, that the monument itself is secular?DiLorento v. Downey USD (1999)
The Supreme Court let stand, without comment, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that a school district was within its rights to discontinue a program of paid advertising signs on school grounds rather than accept a sign promoting the Ten Commandments.Stone v. Graham (1980)
In their only actual ruling on this issue, the Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom in the state to be unconstitutional.
Major Sources:
The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Kermit L. Hall, ed. Compare Prices
The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions. Kermit L. Hall, ed. Compare Prices
The Godless Court? Supreme Court Decisions on Church-State Relationships. Ronald B. Flowers. Compare Prices
The Godless Constitution: The Case Against Religious Correctness. Isaac Kramnick & R. Laurence Moore. Compare Prices
The Constitution and Religion: Leading Supreme Court Cases on Church and State. Robert S. Alley Compare Prices
The Supreme Court on Church and State. Robert S. Alley Compare Prices
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