[ACLU-NM] Historic Ruling in Ten Commandments Case Affirms Religious Liberty Principles in Strongest Terms, ACLU Says

[Kimberly Lavender]

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http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLiberty.cfm?ID=18590&c=38

Historic Ruling in Ten Commandments Case Affirms Religious Liberty
Principles in Strongest Terms, ACLU Says 
	
		
			
				June 27, 2005
			
		
	
  WASHINGTON -- Today's historic Supreme Court ruling that display of
the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses violates the
Constitution contains some of the Court's most powerful language in
years on the question of the government's role in religion and society,
according to the American Civil Liberties Union. 

  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media at aclu.org Congress Should Resist "Unwise and Unnecessary"
Constitutional Amendment on the Ten Commandments 

WASHINGTON -- Today's historic Supreme Court ruling that display of the
Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses violates the Constitution
contains some of the Court's most powerful language in years on the
question of the government's role in religion and society, according to
the American Civil Liberties Union. 

"As the Justices today affirmed, religious liberty is best strengthened
by following the Constitution's command against government entanglement
with religion, not by government involvement in religious
decision-making," said ACLU Legal Director Steven R Shapiro. 

Some of the strongest language came from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's
concurrence with the 5-4 majority, in which she said: "Those who would
renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore
answer a difficult question: Why would we trade a system that has served
us so well for one that has served others so poorly?" 

"When the government associates one set of religious beliefs with the
state and identifies nonadherents as outsiders," Justice O'Connor wrote,
"it encroaches upon the individual's decision about whether and how to
worship...Allowing government to be a potential mouthpiece for competing
religious ideas risks the sort of division that might easily spill over
into suppression of rival beliefs." 

Justice O'Connor's words echo her opinion in Lynch v. Donnelly, in which
she observed that state endorsement of religion "sends a message to
non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political
community." 

"The Ten Commandments play an important part in the spiritual lives of
many Americans and it is precisely for this reason that the government
should not be in the business of endorsing or promoting religious
beliefs," said David A. Friedman, General Counsel for the ACLU of
Kentucky, who argued the case last March. 

In a second decision today, the Court upheld a stone monument display of
the Ten Commandments on the Texas statehouse grounds. However, no
opinion commanded a majority of the Court. The critical fifth vote was
provided by Justice Breyer, who acknowledged that "'the separation of
church and state' has long been critical to the peaceful dominion that
religion exercises in [this] country," but nevertheless concluded that
the particular circumstances of the Ten Commandments display in Texas
permitted it to stay. 

"While we disagree with that conclusion," Shapiro said, "a majority of
the Supreme Court in both cases has now clearly reaffirmed the principle
that government may not promote a religious message through its display
of the Ten Commandments." 

However, the ACLU expressed concern about reports that some in Congress
are intent on pushing for a constitutional amendment to permit religious
displays on government property. Such an extreme assault on the First
Amendment is both unwise and unnecessary, the ACLU said. 

"The Justices affirmed that the government can honor the historical
importance of religious displays without having the state endorse one
faith over another," said Terri Ann Schroeder, a Senior Lobbyist with
the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office. "Congress should respect that
distinction, and respect the First Amendment's protections against the
government funding or promoting religion. We can honor our roots while
honoring the Constitution." 

For more information on the ACLU's defense of religious liberty, go to
http://www.aclu.org/ReligiousLiberty/ReligiousLibertyMain.cfm.