Ten Commandments case.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/03/02/scotus.ten.commandments.ap/index.html
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on Wednesday challenged people seeking to ban displays of the Ten Commandments on government property, noting legislative proclamations invoking God's name are permissible.

"I don't see why the one is good and the other is bad," Scalia said from the bench as the high court waded through oral arguments embracing the legal thicket of church-vs.-state issues.
----snip---

I'll take that question for you. Invoking the vague and non-specific notion of "God" does not endorse any specific religion. In fact, I'd say every religion has a concept of "God", though the terms may be different. However, the Ten Commandments is a very specific invocation. It is quite specific, in the context in question, to Judaic and Christian teaching. Although Islam has references to the messages of the Ten Commandments, the Quran does not recognize them specifically as given to Moses and as questioned in this case. Certainly, none of the Eastern religions do either. Therefore, by displaying the Ten Commandments on public property, that is unquestionably tantamount to a government endorsement of a specific religion, and thus violates a separation of church and state.

Any comments or additions?

[WildClarySage]

1. Not every religion uses the concept of God

Buddhism doesn't, Hindu involves multiple gods, and wiccan/pagan beliefs often revolve around a Goddess. And of course, Jews don't approve of seeing G-d spelled out. Then there are athiests whose beliefs deny the existence of any supreme deity. Scalia is wrong about "God" being non-specific enough. God does have certain connotations to most people.

[FreedomAngel82]

6. Another thing I was thinking of

is if you think about it the Ten Commandments aren't even a Christian thing. God gave Moses the commandments because of what was going on back then. Moses was a JEW. Not a Christian. Jesus didn't give the commandments or was given the commandments. And besides this is going beyond the church and state seperation. Would they like it if another religious group was going around wanting to post their religious rules and stuff?

[Clark2008]

2. I, personally, think if the Supreme Court lets governments display

the 10 Commandments, then other religions should start putting up their commandments or rules.

Wouldn't it be a hoot to see the Texas legislature's yard lined with the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, the Five Pillars of Islam, the Beatitudes, the Buddhist Commandments, the Three Tenets of Judaism, the Articles of Satan and the 13 Wiccan Commandments?

This is what they're opening up the door for, you know?

[cheezus]

3. they're both bad

"if we're going to do one bad thing, we might as well do all other bad things" isn't a valid argument

[cheezus]

4. 5 years down the road

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on challenged people seeking to ban schools from requiring daily bible readings, noting that display of the 10 commandments is permissible.

"I don't see why the one is good and the other is bad," Scalia said from the bench as the high court waded through oral arguments embracing the legal thicket of church-vs.-state issues.

[beam me up scottie]

10. exactly.

nt

[JohnnyRingo]

5. It sends a message.

The message that Christians can recieve fair justice in the courts.
That Christians are represented in legislation.

I guess all others need not apply.

A misconception spread by the Christian right is that prayer is illegal in government venues. Just ask anyone if they think prayer is legal in school. They will probably say: no.

We are free to pray ANYWHERE we want. Some people want it to be REQUIRED and state sponsered. (Roy Moore, I'm talking about you)

On edit:
I'm waiting for the day a Buddist teacher dares to bring a statue to school and tries teaching peace through Buddah. I can hear the screams already.

[FreedomAngel82]

7. Exactly

Nobody is going around telling you that you can't pray. You can pray silently in your mind without making a show out of it. In high school when I was about a sophomore or junior we stopped having the prayer before football games and just had a moment of silence. That way you can say a silent prayer if you'd like. These people are forgetting that we have freedom from religion and freedom of religion. What gives them the right over another religious group? It's going against the Constiution. Besides: what are they going to do? If one of them breaks a law will they stone them in a public event? Are they going to go around and have witch trials next?

[Warpy]

8. these pricks need to read those first three commandments

There is no way a Hindu or a Shintoist or any member of a thosand of the world's non Judeo-Christian religions would expect justice from a courthouse that publicly proclaimed their religions as false and themselves to be condemned for following them.

On the other hand, this atheist would have no problem if they posted the golden rule or the Sermon on the Mount.

[fairfaxvadem]

9. But which 10 Commandments???

No one seems to want to answer which version gets posted. Granted, there aren't huge differences, but the Jewish/Hebrew version, Catholic, and Protestant versions are not exactly the same.

What's next? A lawsuit saying, "hey, that's not the 10 Commandments I was raised with!"

[nickinSTL]

11. They're both wrong

I detest the fact that there are so many expressions of religion in government now. Such as, why in h@!! is there a Senate Chaplain?

Tell me that position is EVER held by a non-Christian.

They do this, and I'll be pushing to get the Havamal put up in government offices.