Decided on the same day the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a monument depicting the Ten Commandments placed on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Van Orden v. Perry, McCreary County v. ACLU declared displays of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky county courthouses to be unconstitutional. The counties in this case posted portions of the Ten Commandments, along with selections from other documents, such as quotes from the Declaration of Independence and lyrics from the Star Spangled Banner, as part of a display titled “The Foundations of American Law and Government.” The Court analyzed this case using its test developed in Lemon v. Kurtzman, which requires a secular purpose for government displays of religious significance. Despite the counties’ contention that the displays were meant to emphasize the historical origins of American law, and were therefore secular, the Court examined the context in which the display appeared and found the supposed secular purpose to be a pretense. The court looked at the history of the display, and noted that the counties added the secular documents to the exhibit, which originally contained only the Commandments, after being sued by the ACLU. The Court found that the addition of the secular documents was done only for purposes of the lawsuit, and that the real purpose behind posting the Commandments was to display a religious message. The distinctions between McCreary and Van Orden highlight the highly contextual nature of the Court’s analysis when it comes to public religious displays.
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