Plano, TX- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court picked up a case, Van Orden V. Texas, in which the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that a Ten Commandments monument could remain on Texas State capitol grounds.
While Ten Commandments cases have been litigated across the country, this is the first such case to be heard at the U.S Supreme Court level in numerous years.
Liberty Legal Institute was instrumental in the Van Orden case, as they filed a brief with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, supporting the Ten Commandments display. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the original ruling in stating that the monument was not a violation of the Establishment Clause.
The case, Van Orden v. Texas, originated in the U.S. District Court in 2002 when Thomas Van Orden sued the state to remove the Ten Commandments display, claiming the display makes non-religious citizens feel second-class while endorsing Christianity and Judaism. After losing at the U.S. District Court in October, Van Orden appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
“There is no constitutional right to censor religious history or artifacts because a citizen feels offended. Eradicating religious documents and history is not compelled by our constitution; it is, in fact, prohibited,” said Kelly Shackelford, chief counsel of the Liberty Legal Institute.
Last October, Senior U.S. District Judge Harry Lee Hudspeth ruled that the display could remain on capital grounds, rejecting Van Orden’s claim that the presence of the Ten Commandments establishes a religion, stating, “The wholesome neutrality guaranteed by the Establishment and Free Exercise Clause does not dictate obliteration of all our religious traditions.”
“The Ten Commandments are a key legal document upon which our system of laws were based. Sandblasting our religious history off our monuments and founding documents is not what the constitution requires,” said Shackelford. “I am confident the U.S. Supreme Court will affirm the Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling, and the display will be upheld.”
The display itself was a gift to Texas by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, which, is a non-religious community service group. The group worked to create many Ten Commandments displays in the 1950s and 1960s as part of an endeavor to reduce child delinquency and abuse by encouraging morality.