Ten commandments ruled unconstitutional?

[caddmannq]

N.Y. Times (Ok, ya gotta register...but it's free. How can ya beat that? )

Some Quotes:

"A federal judge ruled on Monday that a Ten Commandments monument installed in Alabama's judicial building by the state's chief justice [Roy Moore] must be removed."

"Justice Moore was a little-known county judge with a homemade plaque of the Ten Commandments tacked to his courtroom wall..."

"...the law is clear that the chief justice violated the Establishment Clause...The monument is...an obtrusive year-round religious display intended to proselytize on behalf of a particular religion..."

"...early one morning, he sneaked the [ten commandments] monument...into the court building...A Montgomery lawyer, Stephen R. Glassroth, who is Jewish, then sued.

"It offends me going to work everyday and coming face to face with that symbol, which says to me that the state endorses Judge Moore's version of the Judeo-Christian God above all others," Mr. Glassroth said.

"Judge Thompson said the display was much different from other displays of the Ten Commandments, including one at the United States Supreme Court..."


Grrrrrr....

[J-Excel]

There's a freebie link on CNN from yesterday. The Alabama Chief Justice is appealing.

Of course it's unconstitutional. I don't see any valid argument against that fact. I bet a lot of people would complain if they made a monument of the Koran in front of the building.

I think it's not the Commandments per se that are the issue but their display in a supposedly secular place. And the manner of display.

Didn't read the article yet.

[daveleau]

Yep, it is a slippery slope. We are sliding down it fast. Soon there will be no religion allowed in public (this is already a reality for children) and our country will continue on the downward track that parallels our expropriation of God from our nation's center.

[caddmannq]

Lessee...
We are a Christian country since inception.
Our money says "In God We Trust."
The Ten Commandments are displayed at the Supreme Court.
We swear the President in on a Bible.

Yet some Jewish guy sues over the Ten Commandments?
Which were the first real laws of the Jews?

What's wrong with this picture?

[Theophylact]

This judge is a fundamentalist showboat. He was made to take his home-made Ten Commandments plaque out of his county courthouse; he ran for State Supreme Court, became Chief Justice, and in the dead of night, without consulting the other justices, sneaked this multi-ton hunk of granite into the State Supreme Court. He knew he was going to lose; it's simply a combination of a thumb in the eye and a political campaign gimmick.

If you can't have a creche on the courthouse steps -- and it's settled Constitutional law that you can't -- you sure as hell can't have one sect's version of a holy text on display to the exclusion of all others. And the text he used is one sect's text. The Catholics don't use that version; neither do the Jews.

Fom the Washington Post story:

Moore testified that he installed the monument to express his belief that the Ten Commandments are the "moral foundation of American law" and his contention that they reflect "the sovereignty of God over the affairs of men."

He described a world order that places God at the top of a pyramid-like hierarchy, above the church and the state. Perhaps more importantly, Moore said he believes that the Judeo-Christian God is responsible for the system of freedom of religion in the United States.

[Judge] Thompson was particularly piqued by Moore's assertion that other deities "do not allow for freedom of conscience" and that "Americans would not have such freedom if another God were placed over the church and state." Thompson said Moore's notions come "uncomfortably too close to the adoption of . . . a theocracy." Moore's ideas are "incorrect and religiously offensive," Thompson wrote.

.....

The Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which is based in Washington, cast the ruling as an eloquent statement of a fundamental American principle.

"It is not the job of government to single out one religious code and hold it up as the state's favorite. Promoting the Ten Commandments is a task for our houses of worship, not government officials," Lynn said. "It's high time Moore learned that the source of U.S. law is the Constitution, not the Bible."

[Epidemic]

Remove the god commandments and leave the thing as it stands.

They are not only commandmants they are the template for any successful human community.

I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Well that one is perty dang religious (gone))

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. (stricken for religious content)

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. (lose that one too)

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (gone)

Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long. (That one is a toughy probably keep but I have seen some pretty bad parents.)

Thou shalt not (edited for proper translation)Murder.(keeper)

Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Now that is a good one)

Thou shalt not steal. (really applies to court)

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (hey that is a pretty good one)

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's. (pretty good one

I think these remaining 6 societal comandments should be posted on every public building and repeated by the children right after the pledge. Take out the thou and the shalts replace with you will.

[Theophylact]

By the way: the East pediment of the US Supreme Court depicts three lawgivers: Moses, Confucius and Solon.

[caddmannq]

Whoa! Theo!

The Jews have a different Ten Commandments????

Not the same as the Baptists?

What happened there?

[Epidemic]

Hammurabi's Code

Now these are some tough laws here

http://www.duhaime.org/hamm1.htm#1