Stone was one of a group of parents who challenged a Kentucky law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom. At the bottom of the 16”x20” copies were a notation which read “secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of Western civilization and the Common Law of the United States.” The copies of the Ten Commandments were purchased with money from private contributions.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled the Kentucky law unconstitutional.
The Court used the Lemon test to analyze the constitutionality of the Kentucky law. The law violated the first prong- it did not have a secular legislative purpose. The assertion by Kentucky that its law had a secular purpose did not necessarily make it so. The posting of the Ten Commandments had no educational function. The Court considers it irrelevant that the copies were purchased with private contributions because the mere posting of the Commandments demonstrates official support of their message.
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Dissenting Opinion: (Justice Rehnquist:)
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The Supreme Court should defer to the State in determining the secular purpose of the postings. The State Legislature and State Courts both believe that the postings have a secular purpose, and the Court should respect this; especially given that the secular purpose, that the "Ten Commandments have had a significant impact on the development of the legal codes of the Western World" is acknowledged to be true."
The requiring of religious symbols or teachings is sufficient to demonstrate governmental endorsement of their message. Even if the schools hope for the Ten Commandments to be viewed through a secular framework, their historical religious basis make them irrefutably religious.
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Last modified: 02/16/01
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