WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, declaring that public officials may not seek to advance or promote religion, on Monday struck down the posting of the Ten Commandments on the walls of two Kentucky courthouses.
But the court did not set a clear rule for deciding when the government had gone too far in permitting religious displays, and the decision probably wasn't the last word.
In its 5-4 ruling, the court said the commandments were "a sacred text" that carried an "unmistakably religious" message. For that reason, their prominent display in a government building violates the Constitution's ban on laws "respecting an establishment of religion."
The court's opinion, coming on the final day of its term, narrowly holds the line on the separation of church and state. The government and its officials must be neutral toward religion, the court majority said, and may neither promote nor discourage it.
However, in a separate 5-4 ruling, the justices upheld as constitutional a granite monument depicting the Ten Commandments that sits among 17 other monuments and 21 plaques on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin.
The pair of rulings suggests that the Ten Commandments may be displayed inconspicuously among other documents or monuments, but cannot be made the focus of attention in a courthouse or government building.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, who voted to strike down the display in the Kentucky courthouse, cast a fifth vote to uphold the Texas monument. He called it a "borderline case," but stressed that the 44-year-old granite monument did not look to be a religious display. It sits among monuments to war veterans, Boy Scouts, Texas' early pioneer women and others.
The Fraternal Order of Eagles erected the Ten Commandments monument in 1961 as part of its campaign to combat juvenile delinquency, Breyer noted. Visitors to the Capitol grounds might not even notice the monument, he said.
"The Texas display falls on the permissible side of the constitutional line," Breyer concluded. "This display has stood uncontested for nearly two generations.... As a practical matter [it] is unlikely to prove divisive."
In announcing the Kentucky ruling, Justice David H. Souter noted that in the facade above the justices' courtroom, there were stone carvings of 18 ancient lawgivers. One of them is Moses shown holding a tablet. This partial depiction of the Ten Commandments is not objectionable, Souter said, because no reasonable observer would see it as a promotion of religion.
