Five Will Get You Ten
Originally posted 2005-03-11 15:40:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Queens County Supreme Court, New York
Very amusing colloquy at Balkinization arising from Jack Balkin’s prediction that the Supreme Court will “split” on the Decalogue case in a decision per Justice O’Connor that “upholds five, strikes down five.”
New York County Civil Court, New York
One interesting bit: A commenter called “Farnsworth” (author of the famous treatise on contracts?!) reports a New York Times article, excerpted to wit:
Justice David H. Souter asked whether a tablet containing only the last five commandments, the injunctions against killing, stealing and so on, might be constitutional because, unlike the first five, they did not necessarily imply religious belief.
Kings County Supreme Court, New York
That would be a harder case, Mr. Chemerinsky replied, but such a tablet would still be unconstitutional because it would still convey the Ten Commandments’ message.
Ultra-depressing. I’m against the use of the Big Ten as judicial bric-a-brac, but in the process of getting there I see Establishment Clause jurisprudence in utter tatters here.
UPDATE: They split but, thank God (can I say that?), not that way.
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