On The Front Lines
TRI Commends U.S. Supreme Court for Agreeing to Hear Ten Commandments Cases, Issues Guidelines for Displays
Constitutional Guidelines on Displaying Ten Commandments Available at www.rutherford.orgCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear two church-state cases involving the constitutionality of Ten Commandments displays on government property. In the first case, the justices have been asked to decide whether the Texas State Capitol grounds may feature a six-foot-tall granite monument depicting the Ten Commandments. The high court will also consider a Kentucky case involving framed copies of the Ten Commandments posted in a county courthouse. Institute legal staff are presently reviewing the cases and preparing to file a friend-of-the-court brief on this issue. However, in an effort to alleviate some of the confusion surrounding this issue, The Rutherford Institute has also made available online several resources on the constitutional display of religious documents, including guidelines for displaying the Ten Commandments on public property and a history of some of the Ten Commandments monuments that have recently been targeted for removal.
"The Ten Commandments are undeniably one of the foundations on which our legal system is based," stated John W. Whitehead, president and founder of The Rutherford Institute. "Their display in a context that emphasizes their historical role is, in our opinion, constitutional, and we are pleased that the justices have agreed to hear these cases."
Rutherford Institute legal staff have repeatedly been called on for advice on how to legally display the Ten Commandments. For example, last year, District Court Judge David Pake of Maumelle, Ark., turned to The Rutherford Institute for help after the Arkansas American Civil Liberties Union voiced their objections to his small, framed 11-by-14-inch copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of his courtroom. Institute attorneys advised Judge Pake that, in keeping with U.S. Supreme Court precedent, the Ten Commandments could be displayed so long as they were placed in a context with other historical documents. While challenges to Ten Commandments displays on public property have escalated over the past several years, the debate intensified after Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore refused to remove a 5,280 pound Ten Commandments monument from the lobby of the Alabama Judicial Building.
The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
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