The Ten Commandments Cases: A View From Within
The Ten Commandments Cases: A View From Within
Steven Wilf, 40 Conn. L. Rev. 1329 (2008)
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This Article examines two recent United States Supreme Court decisions on the public display of the Ten Commandments, Van Orden v. Perry and McCreary County v. ACLU. It suggests that the Court’s new reliance on examining the context of the public display of original symbols assumes an observer who ignores a reading of historical intent, and, instead of a more complex reading of how different parts of society might see the Decalogue, suggests that current religious groups universally favor public presentations of sacred iconography. Presuming an evangelical Protestant purpose of expanding God’s presence in America’s public square, it ignores other religious traditions, including quietism, iconoclasm, and esotericism. By examining Jewish approaches to the display of the Ten Commandments, the Article shows the ambivalence of one religious group to the public display of sacred symbols. It discusses two competing traditions in Judaism: a recent Lubavitch tradition which has promoted a particular form of display and traditional sources which have argued for the difficulty of representing the Decalogue in art. Finally, it suggests that the Court might consider both the religious desire to display the Decalogue with the costs public display elicits for other religious groups.