Writing at the First Amendment Center, Constitutional scholar David Hudson writes about the current Supreme Court makeup and its potential effect on a complex area of the law: Ten Commandment displays on government property.
Much speculation is afoot over how the current Court headed by Chief Justice G. Roberts Jr. would rule in a similar case. Justice Samuel Alito Jr. has replaced Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who voted to invalidate the Ten Commandments displays in both Van Orden and McCreary County. Alito could vote with Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy to form a group of five justices who might recalibrate the meaning of the establishment clause.
That would be bad news for those of us who would consider such a "recalibration" a further serious erosion of religious liberty. After recent divided opinions like the contentious 2-1 ruling we saw in Grayson County, Kentucky, however, a new case seems all too possible.
