Washington D.C., Nov 8, 2011 / 00:56 am
Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas denounced his colleagues’ decision not to hear a case that would have allowed them to establish a clear standard for judging religious displays on government property.
“Today the Court rejects an opportunity to provide clarity to an Establishment Clause jurisprudence in shambles,” Thomas said in an Oct. 31 dissent.
He explained that the Supreme Court’s disjointed “jurisprudence has confounded the lower courts and rendered the constitutionality of displays of religious imagery on government property anyone’s guess.”
Thomas’ dissenting opinion responded to the court’s decision to reject consideration of a case involving 12-foot-high white crosses. The crosses were placed by the Utah Highway Patrol Association near areas where officers had been killed in the line of duty.