withallyourmind.net

While reading the blogs at Cadre Comments, I was alerted to an encouraging decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Kentucky. The ACLU had brought suit against Mercer county for a courthouse display which contained the ten commandments along with other important historic documents. The court ruled in favor of Mercer county. The decision contains the following comments:

The ACLU makes repeated references to “the separation of church and state.” This extra-constitutional construct has grown tiresome. The First Amendment does not demand a wall of separation between church and state. Our nation’s history is replete with acknowledgement and in some cases, accomodation of religion. Afterall, we are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being….

We will not presume endorsement from the mere display of the Ten Commandments. If the reasonable observer perceived all government references to the Deity as endorsements, then many of our Nation’s cherished traditions would be unconstitutional, including the Declaration of Independence and the national motto. Fortunately, the reasonable person is not a hyper-sensitive plaintiff. Instead, he appreciates the role religion has played in our governmental institutions, and finds it historically appropriate and traditionally acceptable for a state to include religious influences, even in the form of sacred texts, in honoring American legal traditions.

Hopefully, more decisions like this will be made which will destroy the myth of the “wall of separation” between church and state.