Court shalt hear 2 cases involving Commandments

By Stephen Henderson
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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WASHINGTON — Stepping again into the cultural struggle over the separation of church and state, the Supreme Court said yesterday that it would decide whether monuments to the Ten Commandments violated the Constitution when they were placed in public buildings.

The decision is surprising, given the justices' reluctance to tackle the issue for nearly 25 years, but it appears they could avoid it no longer. Dozens of lower courts have been forced to debate the issue in recent years and have failed to produce uniform results. Most recently, former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore became the center of a frenzied debate over the issue when he refused to remove a monument from the courthouse in Montgomery.

Other court decisions Agreed to consider the constitutionality of a federal law that requires state prisons to accommodate inmate religions, from Christianity to Satanism. Heard arguments on whether the government can send immigrants to countries that haven't agreed to accept them. Agreed to consider two cases to flesh out guidelines for when lawsuits belong in federal or state court. Agreed to decide whether Hawaii went too far to keep gasoline affordable for residents when it imposed rent caps on dealer-run stations. Sidestepped a dispute over whether Internet providers can be forced to identify subscribers illegally swapping music and movies online. Declined to hear three cases seeking to reinstate federal regulations that would force regional phone carriers to share their networks with competitors at discounted rates. Refused to decide whether the Pentagon is obligated constitutionally to give news media access to U.S. troops during combat. Declined to step into a dispute over whether a restaurant chain must pay its employees for unused vacation time if they quit or are fired within a year. Refused to consider Union Pacific Railroad's appeal of a $30 million damage award to a man partially paralyzed in a railroad-crossing collision. The Associated Press

The justices took two cases yesterday — one from Kentucky, another from Texas — that give them the opportunity to decide the issue once and for all. Their rulings, expected by July, should determine when, where and how religious symbols can permeate public spaces, and either could endorse or rebuke the push by conservative Christian groups for more public recognition of religious values.

"I think it's clear these cases are going to be the bookends of this Ten Commandments issue," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a public-interest law firm that has advocated for greater acceptance of government associations with religion. "I think we'll get comprehensive rulings, very fact-specific, about the parameters for displaying these monuments legally."

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, hopes for even more.

"I'd prefer something that doesn't flip-flop on the idea that the Ten Commandments are a religious statement that belongs in sacred spaces, but not in government buildings," he said.

Lynn compared the two cases with a 1980 ruling in which the justices decided that a Kentucky law that required public schools to post the commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional.

Proponents of the monuments long have maintained that they reflect a strong tie between religious law and the country's birth, that the Ten Commandments are the basis for our legal system.

Opponents disagree, noting the First Amendment's prohibition against church and state entanglement and other dissimilarities between the Constitution and the commandments.

"We don't have laws against worshipping false gods or desiring your neighbor's spouse," Lynn said. "The First Amendment permits the worship of idols, and disrespect of the Sabbath and blasphemy. There's just not a connection between the Constitution and the Ten Commandments."

But Sekulow said there were similarities between the commandments and many common law provisions — those against murder, for example — and that there was no doubt the commandments were part of the basis for much of Western law.

Moreover, he said, there are as many as 5,000 monuments to the Ten Commandments on public property, and many date as far back as the early 1900s.

"They are very important from a historical standpoint," he said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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