U.S. Supreme Court hearing Ten Commandments case

WASHINGTON -- Ten Commandments displays should be allowed on government property because they pay tribute to America's religious and legal history, the Supreme Court was told Wednesday, in cases that could render a new definition of the role that religion plays in the life of the nation.\n"The idea of having a fence around the Ten Commandments to make clear the state has nothing to do with it, I think that is bending it too far," said Acting Solicitor General Paul Clement, in arguing against a strict First Amendment wall between church and state.\nDavid Friedman, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who is challenging courthouse displays in Kentucky countered: "An assertion that the Ten Commandments is THE source, THE foundation of our legal system ... that is simply wrapping the Ten Commandments in the flag, and that's endorsement."\nIn their comments and questions from the bench, justices were reluctant to adopt a blanket ban on such displays. They struggled to formulate a clear constitutional rule that could determine the fate of thousands of religious symbols on public property around the country, including one in their own courtroom featuring Moses holding the sacred tablets.\nJustice Antonin Scalia noted that legislative proclamations and prayer invoking God's name are permissible. \n"I don't see why the one is good and the other is bad," he said.\nIn the high court's first confrontation with the Ten Commandments issue in a quarter-century, a case from Texas also was being argued.\nErwin Chemerinsky, a lawyer representing a man who seeks its removal, told the justices the display is a "religious symbol." \nThe prominence of the display on the capitol grounds and the fact that so many of the commandments deal with God "does promote religion," he maintained.\nMonuments carrying the Ten Commandments are common in town squares, courthouses and other government-owned land around the country. Lawyers challenging these displays argue that they violate the First Amendment ban on any law "respecting an establishment of religion."\nThe question has sparked dozens of heated legal battles, including one in Alabama by Roy Moore. He lost his job as chief justice a year ago after defying a federal order to remove a 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument he had installed in the state courthouse.\nMore than 50 groups have filed "friend-of-the-court" briefs weighing in on the issue.\nOutside, nearly a hundred demonstrators gathered in front of the Supreme Court in the icy cold for rallies following a candlelight vigil by supporters of the displays. Many shouted "Amen" and broke into refrains from "Amazing Grace," as in the form of a prayer meeting, as several kneeled before the court steps.\nOpponents of the displays, meanwhile, waved signs reading "Keep Government and Religion Separate" and "My God Does Not Need Government Help."\n"I don't think government should be in the business of morality," said David Condo, 40, of Beltsville, Md.\nWhile the cases strictly involve Ten Commandments displays, a broad ruling could define the proper place of religion in public life -- from use of religious music in a school concert to students' recitation of "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. A decision is expected by late June.\nThe Bush administration, which sided with a California school district last year to keep "God" in the Pledge, is now joining Texas and Kentucky officials to back the Ten Commandments displays.\n"Countless monuments, medallions, plaques, sculptures, seals, frescoes and friezes -- including, of course, the Supreme Court's own courtroom frieze -- commemorate the Decalogue. Nothing in the Constitution requires these historic artifacts to be chiseled away or erased," writes Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott in his court filing.\nTen Commandments displays are supported by a majority of Americans, according to an AP-Ipsos poll. The poll taken in late February found that 76 percent support it and 23 percent oppose it.\nIn the Texas case, Thomas Van Orden lost his lawsuit to have a 6-foot granite monument removed from the state Capitol grounds.\nThe Fraternal Order of Eagles donated the exhibit to the state in 1961, and it was installed about 75 feet from the Capitol in Austin. The group gave thousands of similar monuments to American towns during the 1950s and '60s, and those have been the subject of multiple court fights.\nTwo Kentucky counties, meanwhile, hung framed copies of the Ten Commandments in their courthouses and added other documents, such as the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, after the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the display.