{"id":362,"date":"2003-04-28T13:18:15","date_gmt":"2003-04-28T18:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=362"},"modified":"2003-04-28T13:18:15","modified_gmt":"2003-04-28T18:18:15","slug":"the_establishme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/28\/the_establishme.html","title":{"rendered":"The Establishment"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Supremes have turned down (without comment) an appeal by Kentucky of an appeals court ruling which forbade erecting a Ten Commandments monument<\/a> on the state capitol grounds.<\/p>\n

The governor in 2000 signed into law a resolution adopted by the state legislature that required placement of the monument, which is more than six feet tall and almost four feet wide, outside the Capitol.
\nAt the top of the monument are the words, “I AM the LORD thy God” followed by the commandments, a sacred and religious text for Jews and Christians. At the bottom are two small Stars of David and a symbol representing Christ.
\nThe monument was given to the state in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles group. It was displayed until 1980, when it was removed to make room for construction. It has remained in storage since then.<\/p>\n

I somehow think the piety of individual Christians and Jews in Kentucky will survive the loss.<\/p>\n

It looks to me (reading between the lines) that the 2000 law was meant to be an end run around Establishment Clause issues.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Attorney General Albert Chandler appealed to the Supreme Court. He said the 2000 law required an overall public display of historic documents that included the Ten Commandments, a religious symbol.
\nHe said the display was proposed under the law, but it had not yet been designed or installed. He said the appeals court should not have made a constitutional decision based on “speculation and conjecture” over the display’s appearance.<\/p>\n

Which is an odd comment, since it sounds like there already was such a display, but that it had been taken down for construction.<\/p>\n

I don’t think the Decalogue-as-historical-foundation argument holds up <\/a>very well, but since the Supreme rejected the appeal without comment, we’ll have to wait for a better test case to see what they think. <\/p>\n

While I’m opposed to erecting new Decalogue monuments (what I’d call Reactionary Religious Architecture), I’m much more of a mixed mind when it comes to existing monuments and the like. At some point (probably a much more nebulous point than the courts would like), such things take on an historical interest of their own. Knowing that people in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, even Twentieth Centuries had certain beliefs or perspectives, even when those show a different sensitivity or sense of the Constitution than what we have today, is valuable. Sandblasting the word God from every public monument, for example, would be closely akin to the Taliban blowing up ancient stone Buddhas. <\/p>\n

Still, new <\/i>attempts to overtly or covertly spray “I AM the LORD thy God” into the public forum deserve to be challenged.<\/p>\n

I’ll be interested in seeing the perspective of some of the <\/a>legal <\/a>minds <\/a>of the Blogosphere over the next several hours.<\/p>\n

(via Rich<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Supremes have turned down (without comment) an appeal by Kentucky of an appeals court ruling which forbade erecting a Ten Commandments monument on the state capitol grounds. The governor…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8811,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/04\/11\/hang_ten_comman.html","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":0},"title":"Hang Ten (Commandments)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Apr-06 5:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Haven't we already gone through this again and again and again and again? Evidently we have to go through another \"again.\" At a ceremonial signing today of a bill that...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7187,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/12\/the_big_nine_ta.html","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":1},"title":"The Big Nine take on the Big Ten","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 12-Oct-04 2:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Supreme Court has agreed to take on a couple of \"state display of the Ten Commandments\" cases. 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The 5,280-pound granite monument will be on display at...","rel":"","context":"In "Religion"","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133746,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/28\/crashing-into-the-ten-commandments.html","url_meta":{"origin":362,"position":4},"title":"Crashing into the Ten Commandments","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Jun-17 10:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While I object to the sectarian-ordained imposition of the holy writ of one religion on governmental grounds, vandalism (whether considered or the result of mental illness) is not the answer, and not something to be celebrated. 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