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Derek Snyder Nineteen years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court took up the question of the government displaying the Ten Commandments in two separate cases involving the First Amendment’s establishment clause. On June 27, 2005, in a 5-4 decision, the court ruled in Van Orden v. Perry that a display of the Ten Commandments on the grounds at the Texas capital did not violate the establishment clause. On that same day, the court ruled in McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky that a display of the Ten Commandments in a Kentucky courthouse did violate the constitutional protection against respecting an establishment of religion. The deciding vote in each case — the liberal Justice Stephen Breyer. His reasoning was based on what he perceived the purpose of each display to be — a historical and traditional purpose in Texas and in Kentucky a religious endorsement. The establishment clause in the First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ….” The courts have taken this country on a meandering journey via the interpretation of this clause. This nation has a long history of embracing Judeo-Christian traditions, including the Ten Commandments, and only a recent […]