Washington D.C., Jun 26, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In the shadow of a Ten Commandments display that sits above its own courtroom, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled 5-4 that Ten Commandments displays violate the doctrine of separation of Church and State. In a separate ruling, the Court upheld the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments on government land.
In the case involving Kentucky courthouse exhibits, the court said it was taking the position that issues of Ten Commandments displays in courthouses should be resolved on a case-by-case basis. In both the Kentucky decision and the other decision, also 5-4, involving the positioning of a 6-foot granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was the swing vote.
Justice Antonin Scalia released a stinging dissent in the courthouse case, declaring, "What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle."
The majority decision in the Kentucky case argued that some displays inside courthouses would be permissible if they're portrayed neutrally in order to honor the nation's legal history. But Scalia countered that such determinations often boil down to the Court’s “personal preferences.”