Are the Ten Commandments a basis for US Law?

[Theophylact]

Eugene Volokh isn't so sure:

People sometimes describe the Ten Commandments as an important source or foundation of modern American law. As I mentioned in my post Friday, only 3 of the Ten Commandments -- thou shalt not kill (or, as I'm told the better translation goes, thou shalt not murder), thou shalt not steal, and thou shalt not bear false witness -- are actually implemented in modern American law; so much of the Ten Commandments isn't in fact an important source of modern American law.

But I wonder whether even those three commandments qualify as a source of modern law. The assertion that some old law is a source of new law means, I think, that the new law came about because of the old one, and not because of some other alternative source.

My sense is that most functioning societies contain prohibitions on murder (though the exact boundaries of what killing is lawful vary in some measure from one society to another) and stealing, at least within the group -- the societies need the prohibitions to remain functioning. I suspect the same would be true of bearing false witness, since without some such prohibition, at least as to actually being a witness in court, the judicial system wouldn't function effectively.

English law (which is the source of the American prohibitions in this area) was an amalgam of the law of the Anglo-Saxons, who had been Christianized by the time of the Norman Invasion, and the law of the Normans, which I take it was probably a mix of Viking law with some elements of Roman law. So the question is: Did these legal systems adopt prohibitions on murder, stealing, and bearing false witness when they became Christianized? If so, then the Ten Commandments would indeed be a source of those aspects of modern American law. But if the legal systems already had such prohibitions before the conversion to Christianity (as I strongly suspect, though if you know something to the contrary, please let me know), then those old prohibitions, not the Ten Commandments, would be a source of the modern rules.

Now it may well be that in any event, more people obeyed those rules because of the Ten Commandments. More broadly, I don't want to deny the influence on American law of Christian thinking and theology about other parts of the Bible. (For instance, I suspect that the prohibitions on homosexuality did flow from the Bible.) Moreover, Christian thinking, including thinking about the Ten Commandments, may well have influenced American social norms that aren't legally enforceable. The country would be better if more people obeyed many of the Ten Commandments. And, finally, I recognize that the Ten Commandments has become an important symbol in the culture wars.

But I do think that the claim that the Ten Commandments are a source or foundation of modern American law is not in fact accurate. Some of the Amendments couldn't be implemented into American law without violating the Free Exercise Clause ("no other gods before me" and "no graven images"). Some others were once implemented partly, but not fully, and we have since generally retreated (quite rightly, in my view) from trying to implement them (not taking the Lord's name in vain and not working on the Sabbath). One was once legally enforced but isn't so today (no adultery). Two others couldn't be implemented as legally binding, at least without an extremely oppressive government (honoring your father and mother, and not coveting). And the three -- no killing, no stealing, and no bearing false witness -- that are part of our secular law today were part of the pre-Christian precursors to our law as well, and thus probably flow from those precursors rather than from the Ten Commandments.

[Terminal23]

Whether your religious or not I say that the ten commandments are a good moral source to follow.Of course if your not religiuos or belive in another GOD then don't follow"Thou shalt have no other gods before me."Otherwise a good set of moral rules that any decent person would have no problem following.

[alondra]

can anyone deney, as society has weakened following these rules, society has deteriorated, Ps I am not religious but the rules are fine with me.

[implexant]

IMO, yes. the little research i've done into the founding of our constiution ect. leaves little doubt that our laws and government were founded upon the Bible and the British Magnacarta (equivelent to the US Constitution). And the Magnacarta was largely founded upon the Bible so I would gather that yes, our laws were based on the Bible/Ten Commandments.

interesting article though

-Chris