Supreme Court rejects Ten Commandments case

Apr 28, 2003 | The Supreme Court refused to salvage Kentucky's plan to display the Ten Commandments on a granite monument near the state capitol.

The state Legislature ordered the display in 2000, but the monument has never gone up. The American Civil Liberties Union won a lower court ruling preventing the display, arguing that it violated provisions in the Constitution on separation of church and state.

The monument, six feet tall and four feet wide, was donated to the state in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, a social group. It stood until the late 1980s in an obscure area near a parking lot, when it came down for a construction project. It has been in storage since.

The 2000 resolution directed that the monument be placed alongside secular monuments and a giant floral clock near the capitol. The placement was supposed to emphasize the Ten Commandments' historical place in the development of law, but a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

The Ten Commandments have been at the center of several recent legal battles in Kentucky, including local efforts to post them in classrooms and courthouses. Most courts have ruled that the displays were intended to promote religion.

The Kentucky marker depicts two tablets, with an inscription that begins, "The Ten Commandments. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

The Ten Commandments contain both religious and secular directives, including the familiar proscriptions on stealing, killing and adultery.

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