The Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court building
17 Comments Published by Ben DuPré August 28th, 2006 in First Amendment, Law, ReligionOn the Foundation’s homepage, this week’s America Acknowledges God highlights Moses with the Ten Commandments in the
Supreme Court’s courtroom (left). There are, in fact, many other representations of the Ten Commandments in that building.
Many who learn of the Decalogue’s presence in that courtroom are naturally puzzled by such a display because this is the same Court that has shown repeated hostility to Ten Commandments displays in other courtrooms and public buildings. In Stone v. Graham in 1980, the Supreme Court held that Kentucky schools could not display the Ten Commandments on classroom walls because “[i]f the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the Commandments,” which, the Court said, is “not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.” More recently, the Court just last year told McCreary County, Kentucky that its Ten Commandments display had to go, but that a Ten Commandments monument in Texas could stay. Perhaps mindful of the irony, the Court excused its own Ten Commandments display (left) because it is “in the company of 17 other lawgivers, most of them secular figures.”
The Court should know that the Constitution does not require the public display of God’s law to be crowded out by an overwhelming counterbalance of “secular figures” or documents.
Apparently, the architects and designers of the Supreme Court’s building, built in 1935, did not foresee that its occupants-to-be would be stripping the public square of references to God because, throughout the Supreme Court’s building, representations of the Ten Commandments abound. In addition to the frieze with Moses highlighted above, here are some examples of the Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court building, all of which can be seen on the Court’s website.
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TEN COMMANDMENTS AT THE SUPREME COURT
Click on picture for further information at Supreme Court’s website.
Moses with Two Tablets on the East Face
Moses on the West Exterior Facade
Ten Commandments on Front Bronze Doors
Moses & Ten Commandments in Great Hall (8 times)
Ten Commandments on Wooden Interior Courtroom Doors
Ten Commandments* in Frieze Above Bench
*This marble frieze featuring a tablet or tableau with Roman numerals I through X directly above the Chief Justice’s chair is identified by the Supreme Court Curator’s Office as “The Bill of Rights,” and not the Ten Commandments. The Curator claims to have found, within the past few years, a letter from the sculptor describing this as the Bill of Rights. However, the context of the frieze depicts classical figures and symbols of law and government, which would make the Ten Commandments much more appropriate to the theme than the Bill of Rights, more especially in light of the prevalence of the Ten Commandments symbols throughout the building—in Roman numerals—and the corresponding lack of such Bill of Rights symbols. Moreover, the Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to the United States Supreme Court (1979) identified this symbol as a “tableau of the Ten Commandments,” as does a 1986 National Historic Landmark book on the National Park Service’s website here. What do you think? Commandments or Amendments?
Do you now see why it would be awfully hypocritical for the Supreme Court to banish any display of the Ten Commandments from public view? Any sandblasting of such displays would have to start with their building, and it would certainly take awhile. Instead of drawing fine distinctions about “context” and crowds of “secular figures,” the Court should just come clean and admit that no public display of the Ten Commandments violates the First Amendment, including their own.
17 Responses to “The Ten Commandments in the Supreme Court building”
- 1 Pingback on Nov 14th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
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The day you guys take pride in being christians and follow the commandments
rather than letting those who dont have freedom of any thing in there own native lands to dictate where to put christianity that is rather pathetic ,
eg A khan applying to remove public dispays what a laugh
This may be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. Depicting Moses is not the same as depicting the Ten Commandments. You clearly don’t see the difference, so I’ll explain why the depictions in the Supreme Court are okay.
What’s wrong with displaying the Ten Commandments is not that the laws themselves are bad (though I’d say a few of them are- do we really want our government enforcing adultery laws? Well, you nut jobs may, but the rest of us don’t because we like having our own lives and resolving our problems ourselves). The problem is displaying them as the superior law. They aren’t. Their manufacture is of historical importance in the realm of law, so showing reverence for that is alright. At the same time, acting as though those laws hold sway over our nation as the Final And Divine Word Of Lord God Almighty Blessings Be Upon His Name Without The Approved Written Consent Of Major League Baseball Thy Will Be Done A Spoonful Of Sugar Makes The Medicine Go Down is a clear violation of the separation of Church and State.
By the way, separation of Church and State isn’t a myth. Look up what Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin had to say about Christianity. Look up with John Adams wrote about it in the Treaty of Tripoli. They and the other Fathers specifically voted down numerous attempts to include the word “God” in the Constitution. Think that was an accident?
I suggest reading the 1st Amendment. The words ’separation’, ‘church’, and ’state’ do not even appear. The Bill of Rights was signed by John Adams, and the REV Augustus Mullenburg, the original speaker of the house—that’s right, he was a pastor. According to the writings of the founding fathers, the 10 commandments are indeed the highest law of our land. You may be able to get away with ignoring them now in this day and age, but like it or not, if you reject Jesus Christ, one day you will be judged by them, and there won’t be any chance for an appeal.
The ten commandments ARE the absolute foundation of all human relationships with God and mankind. Commandments 1 – 4 provide the foundation for our relationship with God, and commandments 5 – 10 provide the foundation for our relationships with each other. Indeed there should be civil penalties of varying degrees for any person breaking commandments 5 – 10, but commandments 1 – 4 is a matter of conscience between each person and God.
Wait, whoever said the Ten Commandments were “christian?” And who said Moses was “christian?” The Ten Commandments were brought to all of the people by Moses from G-d. Moses was a Jew. Jesus was a Jew. I don’t recall ever hearing that Jesus converted to anything else. Just the facts please. Believe in G-d, live by the Ten Commandments and hopefully your life will be happier. And let others believe in what they do.
“Jesus was a Jew. I don’t recall ever hearing that Jesus converted to anything else.”
Esther, you some piece of work trying to claim that Jesus wasn’t a Christian! LOL!!!
The Ten Commandments were written by the finger of GOD, [Yahweh] , for the Jews , delivered to the Jews, by the Jew, Moses, on Mt. Sinai.
Christ was the Word in flesh. He established Christianity which means [follower of Christ]. The Old Testament [covenant] was upgraded by Jesus Christ when He stated, “love your neighbor and love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy soul and with all thy mind. On these 2 hang all the rest.” The New Testament should be called the “Renewed Covenant”
Since the secular progressives have taken over, this country is under judgement, because we have abandoned the God of the bible. Love is NOT being propagated in this country whatsoever. God help us all.
KLK: I must disagree with you , with all due respect. The Ten Commandments are NO LONGER the foundation of a relationship with God: the coming of Christ has replaced the Law; that is our NEW foundation. But the Law was defininitely necessary beforehand and is valid today as a guide to good living.
I don’t know if you adhere to the Renewed Covenant {New Testament}, but St. Paul plainly states that the Law was a school master as well as a structured way to please God, but that it died on the cross with Christ. We are no longer under this Law; it has been replaced by faith and mercy. The Law is still good to go by, but keeping it will not save you because you CAN’T keep it to the letter.
But I definitely believe that the Ten Commandments must stay on our buildings.
It’s time for the church to get out of the world and the world to get out of the church!!!!
Great blog. Do you know of any relevant NLP forums or discussion groups?
The Commandments are as valid today as the day God scratched them in two tablets with His Finger. Here in the Us we have taken to mocking God’s Commandments. The other day I saw a car with the bumper sticker that said “Islam Is The Way” and “Read The Quran” however you chose to spell it. The last people who would want Sharia Law in effect were the young mixed race people in the car. They are evidently unaware that under Sharia Law adultery is punished by Beheading. Theft is punishable by cutting off a hand. Maybe those who hate God’s Commandments will like Sharia Law better? Those are also based on the Ten Commandments that God Gave Moses.
It’s time for the churches to once again get off their fat behinds and take an interest in political things. We need Godly people for candidates and we need Godly people going to the voting booth with sense enough to know that you do not vote sodomites and lesbians into public office.
It’s time to get Government out of the business of the church just as the First Ammendment states. No Government interference in church business.
I do not moderate the truth. Now we have censorship of truth in this web site of all web sites? What a joke!
Mr. Johansen,
To protect against spam, this blog’s host uses an automatic spam filter software. Some comments, including your first one posted today, require approval of the moderator before they are published. Generally, only those rare comments that are clearly spam, too obscene to be edited, or accidental repeat comments are not approved for publication here. Sometimes a brief delay ensues before the comment can be approved. Rest assured, there is no censorship here.
For the one who was asking about discussion groups or forums, of course now I doubt if they will ever check back….if you register with Hi5.com which is a social network, they have an abundance of Christian forums.
To Mr. Johansen, check your state to see if you have the Constitution Party on your ballot. If you don’t, see what you can do about getting it on there. You can check out the platform on http://www.Constitutionparty.com.
I agree, it is time we get God fearing people in government. I will never understand why people and government have to be the way they are. To live for the Lord gives you so much peace. However, all this has been prophesied in the Word of God. The New World Order, (one world government) as well as a one world religion. It is all in there and soon the time will be approaching that Jesus will return and conquer the world. All that is happening now is just laying the ground for the anti-christ. Prophesy WILL be fulfilled. I read the back of the book however…and we win!