From: ahk@chinet.com   
      
   Rhino  wrote:   
   >On 2026-02-22 4:03 a.m., Adam H. Kerman wrote:   
      
   >>I wonder if BTR1701 agrees with me that the Louisiana statute requiring   
   >>display of the Ten Commandments is an unconstitutional Establishment.   
      
   >>Here's the King James Version. I got a kick out of the state's argument   
   >>that "Don't kill or steal shouldn't be controversial". I'm not seeing   
   >>secular language in Thou shalt have no other gods before me.   
      
   >>In Roarke v. Brumley, en banc, the 5th Circuit reversed the   
   >>injunction upheld by the 3-judge panel, claiming that lacking evidence   
   >>that the posters themselves weren't an Establishmemt, they just couldn't   
   >>sustain the injunction.   
      
   >>I'm quoting them below. They simply cannot all be the basis for civil   
   >>law.   
      
   >>Ten Commandments . . .   
      
   >I still have trouble seeing how putting up a sign is the same as   
   >establishing a state church. Isn't that what the Establishment Clause is   
   >designed to prevent?   
      
   At a minimum, yes.   
      
   The clauses of the First Amendment are interpretted broadly. The   
   Establishment Clause prohibits goverment from promoting one belief at   
   the expense of another. The free exercise clause prohibits government   
   from preventing its citizens from expressing what they believe.   
      
   >I don't doubt that the sign shows a strong bias in favour of   
   >Christianity over other religions and could be seen as a problem from   
   >that perspective but I don't think you've established a state church by   
   >displaying that sign.   
      
   >A state church would have a structure and an organization, a hierarchy   
   >of leaders and members, known rules and, in Europe at least, might   
   >subject you to paying tax to it. None of that happens by putting up a sign.   
      
   The Establishment Clause prohibits direct state support to religion.   
   However, on the basis of "The power to tax is the power to destroy,"   
   which is read into the free exercise clause uniquely and no other aspect   
   of commerce, religion benefits from tax-exempt status at federal and   
   state levels.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)