U.S. Court Upholds 10 Commandments on Public Land

March 26, 2008

Author: Amanda Beck

Source: Yahoo! News

Wire Service: Reuters

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/us_nm/court_commandments_dc;_ylt=AiexzanuzoGm4rdmiH7Dsm47Xs8F

A nearly 50-year-old monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments does not violate the Constitution just because it sits nearly alone on public grounds in a Washington city, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday.

The division between church and state is a core principle of American democracy, but courts have long struggled to find exactly where the dividing line falls.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals cited precedent rulings in this latest case, which involves a 6-foot-tall (1.8-meter-tall) granite monument near the Old City Hall in Everett, Washington, about 25 miles north of Seattle.

The court found that the monument did not have a solely religious purpose. "Nothing about the setting is conducive to genuflection," Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for a three-judge panel.