June 27, 2005
Justices Rule On First Round of Commandment Cases
By Andrew Dobbs
The first of two decisions expected today on the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments in public buildings came down. The Washington Post is reporting that the Kentucky case, which involved the display of the Decalogue in two county courthouses was ruled to be unconstitutional. The majority opinion by Justice David Souter noted, in part, the "predominantly religious purpose" of the display.
No word yet on the Texas case, but many are suprised that the two decisions were split. Keep tuned to BOR for your Supreme Court news.
UPDATE: The ruling went the other way in the Texas case. The Court ruled 5-4 that the monument on the Capitol grounds did not violate the Constitution. The judgment in the other case was also 5-4, Sandra Day O'Connor provided the swing vote.
Posted by Andrew Dobbs at June 27, 2005 10:06 AM
| TrackBack
The Texas decision has come down, and it has been ruled constitutional. Perhaps that explains the split :P
Actually, it was Justice Breyer who was the swing vote. Not O'Connor.
Breyer - swing vote in Texas Case.
O'Connor - swing vote in Kentucky Case.
Exactly what do you think "swing vote" means?
Breyer voted one way in the Kentucky case and the other way in the Texas case. Hence the "swing".
O'Connor, who voted against the constitutionality of BOTH displays, was consistent and did not swing.
O'Conner just swings all the time, she's a natural swinger. Breyer was swinging from his natural roost in the liberal side.
Actually, these two decision provide hope for many of us centrists out there. BTW, I fall somewhere in the middle on most issues. What these two decisions did was the following:
1. Outlaw overt displays of religious intimidation through the use of public areas, thwarting many of the Christian fundamentalists.
2. Allow legitimate historical references be made in public areas, thwarting the secular humanist fundamentalists who want to strip all references to religion from our public areas, even when the reference is based in history.
Most Americans fall somewhere in the middle on most of these arguments and want to get along. It's the extremes on both sides that get in the way of that happening usually. It's nice that the Supreme Court acknowledged that absolutes one way or the othere are not the way to go.
