Constitutional Law Religious Freedom and Essay

Total Length: 810 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 4

Page 1 of 3



In addition to the argument that the law's requirement of hanging the Ten Commandments is contrary to a country with no established religion, the commandments were also serving no functional purpose but a religious one. In many schools, the teaching of religion and religious ideas occurs in social studies, history, and culture classes. This contributes to students' understanding of different viewpoints, heritages, and the foundations of countries and institutions. Thus, using the Ten Commandments as a lesson in Western law would be a reasonable use of the document in my view. Even hanging the ten commandments in a classroom as a display for a lesson or project or with other types of important laws would have been acceptable Hanging the Ten Commandments as they were in Kentucky, however, was done without a corresponding lesson. That is to say, a secular or educational purpose of the commandments hanging in every classroom, not just the ones that dealt with them as curriculum, could not be found. At worst, this is poor educational planning and instruction. At worst, it is unconstitutional.

Thus, the issue of religion in public forums like public schools is a different one. Obviously, teachers and students have a right to express themselves.
In this case, however, the hanging of the Ten Commandments in every classroom without a corresponding curriculum and as mandated by law did not properly honor a country that professes no establishment of religion. These court cases have gone on to inspire similar rulings, such as those that took place in 2005 regarding the presence of the Ten Commandments outside of courthouses (Lane 2005). The fact that the Supreme Court ruled one monument unconstitutional while another was deemed constitutional suggests that judicial review is used properly in these cases, only used to require the removal of a religious item if that item's presence defies the constitution

References

Lane, C. (2005, July 28). Court Split Over Commandments. The Washington Post.

Retrieved at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062700416.html

Robinson, B.A. (2000, July). The Ten Commandments: Legal Developments: 1999.

Retrieved February 12, 2009, from Religious Tolerance. Web Site: http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_10c3.htm

Simon, Barbara a. (1996, April). Turning back the clock in Tennesse. Retrieved February 12, 2009, from Public Eye.org. Web Site: http://www.publiceye.org/ifas/fw/9604/legal.html

Stone V. Grahm" (n.d.) Retrieved February 12, 2009, from the Religious Freedom

Page. Web Site: http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/court/ston_v_grah.html.....

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