Briefs in the Ten Commandments Case

Here are links to some of the briefs in the McCreary County v ACLU of Kentucky case that will be heard by the Supreme Court in March. The brief I mentioned in the post below, written by Herb Titus and William Olson on behalf of a bevy of religious right groups, can be found here. That brief takes the radical position that the 14th amendment doesn't apply any of the bill of rights to the states at all.

A brief from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League and the director of the Center for Christian-Jewish Learning at Boston College can be found here. This brief argues that the Ten Commandments are a specifically religious text that has been the source of a great deal of contention between Jews and Christians, as well as between different groups of Christians. It says, in part:

The Establishment Clause, at its core, prohibits government from taking sides, or even appearing to take sides, on matters of religious belief. In two cases now before the Court, government has erected or maintained a monumental or framed display of a particular version of the Ten Commandments, outside of a secular program of educational or historical study or debate. Government is proclaiming a message, not inviting a discussion. Yet, that message is fundamentally inconsistent with government's role under the First Amendment.

Often overlooked in legal discussions of the Ten Commandments is the theological understanding of the Ten Commandments, as a text with deep religious meaning, but also with different meanings even among the religious traditions that accept the Decalogue's authenticity as binding rules of law. This brief supplies that theological understanding, and thereby defines the message generally conveyed by public displays of the Decalogue to the reasonable, knowledgeable observer. That message is critical to a proper application of the principles enshrined by the Establishment Clause.

The American Jewish Congress is also preparing a brief, written by Marc Stern, taking a similar position to the Anti-Defamation League and I'll provide a link to it as soon as it is available on their webpage.