High Court Hears Ten Commandments Cases

by Mark H. Levine
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Thomas Van Orden is a homeless man with tobacco-stained teeth and unkempt hair. He lives in a tent in a patch of woods near the state capitol building in Austin, Texas. Van Orden refuses to discuss the sad circumstances that have turned his life upside down, but he proudly describes his legal battle against the state of Texas to remove a six-foot tall monument of the Ten Commandments (also known as the Decalogue) that stands on the capitol grounds. "I sued the state...to uphold the values found in the First Amendment of the Constitution,” the former attorney says, referring to the establishment clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from establishing or endorsing a specific religion. The Supreme Court heard arguments in Van Orden's case in March and is expected to declare a ruling this June.

TEXAS ANSWERS THE CHARGE

Lawyers for the state of Texas argue that the Ten Commandments display does not endorse religion and, therefore, does not violate the First Amendment. On the contrary, they claim that the monument stands as a powerful secular (non-religious) symbol of America's devotion to the rule of law. President Bush supports Texas' right to display the Ten Commandments on government property. His representative told the high court that the Decalogue is "a uniquely potent and commonly recognized symbol of the law."

RELIGIOUS TEXTS VS. SECULAR SYMBOL

Not so, counters Erwin Chemerinsky, the attorney who argued Van Orden's case at the Supreme Court. "The Ten Commandments express a message that is thoroughly and essentially religious; namely, there is a God and God has decreed rules for behavior.”

Moreover, says Chemerinsky, not all religions accept the Ten Commandments, and even those that do, such as Judaism and Christianity, embrace different versions of the Decalogue. Therefore, when the Texas government chose a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments to place on government property, they made a clear statement that religion or a particular religious belief is favored or preferred.

THE JEWISH VIEW

The Ten Commandments display has evoked different opinions from American Jews. Jewish groups that oppose the monument worry that it represents a dangerous crack in the wall of separation between church and state. That wall, which keeps government out of religious matters, ensures that all citizens - regardless of their religious beliefs or identity - are entitled to equal rights and opportunities. This democratic principle has enabled religious minorities, like Jews, to flourish. Therefore, a portion of the American Jewish community has always worked tirelessly to enforce the First Amendment.

Jewish supporters of the Texas monument, however, are not persuaded by the argument that their religious liberty will be threatened if the government is allowed to display the Decalogue. On the contrary, they believe that Judaism (and all religions in this country) will flourish if the government were to soften its apparent opposition toward public celebrations of religion. In an environment where religion is more deeply respected, citizens, including Jews, might be more inclined to embrace their own religious heritage. Because the Ten Commandments are one of Judaism's important contributions to western society, Jews can be expected to take special pride in seeing them honored in public.