Having now mastered the Supremes’ crystal clear jurisprudence in this area, I disagree with Mark, slightly. I believe the Court will permit four of the Commandments to be displayed: No killing, no stealing, no bearing false witness, and, while that “honor thy father and thy mother” thing is a bit on the quaint side, they’ll let it stand for nostaligia’s sake. But this stuff about “God,” the sabbath, and graven images? That very personal prying about adultery, and especially that sexist, judgmental business about who’s coveting whose wife? All that must be stricken. After all, as Justices O’Connor, Kennedy and Souter reminded us in Casey (1992), “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” So here’s to The Four Commandments! And by the way, do we really need to call them “Commandments”? How ’bout, like, “The Four Strong Suggestions”?
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About the Author
Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.
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