My seventh cache commemorating landmark decisions in American legal history. Thirty nine years ago this Sunday the Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham that a Kentucky statute requiring school officials to post a copy of the Ten Commandments on a wall in every public classroom violated the First Amendment’s establishment clause, which is commonly interpreted as a separation of church and state.
BACKGROUND
In 1978 the State of Kentucky adopted a law requiring that the ten commandments be posted on the wall of every class room. Sydell Stone and a number of other parents challenged the state law and filed a claim against James Graham, the superintendent of public schools in Kentucky.
RULING
In a 5-4 ruling the Court held that the law was in violation of the First Amendment. The Court concluded that because "requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school rooms has no secular legislative purpose," it is unconstitutional. The majority voiced that The Commandments convey a religious undertone, because they concern "the religious duties of believers: worshipping the Lord God alone, avoiding idolatry, not using the Lord's name in vain, and observing the Sabbath Day." But since "the Commandments are not integrated into the school curriculum, where the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history," they have no secular purpose and a definite religious purpose. “The Ten Commandments are undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths, and no legislative recitation of a supposed secular purpose can blind us to that fact," the Court wrote.