Split Rulings On Commandments

Court: Some Religious Displays On Gov't Land OK

(CBS/AP) 
Rehnquist, 80, handled one of the Ten Commandment cases and had to clear his throat several times. He breathed heavily and kept the announcement brief. The chief justice has thyroid cancer and uses a trachea tube to help him breathe. He spoke quietly and said very little during the session.

Most of the retirement speculation has focused on Rehnquist, who has cancer, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 75.

In the biggest case of the morning, the justices voting on the prevailing side in the Kentucky case left themselves legal wiggle room, saying that some displays inside courthouses — like their own courtroom frieze — would be permissible if they're portrayed neutrally in order to honor the nation's legal history.

But framed copies in two Kentucky courthouses went too far in endorsing religion, the court held. Those courthouse displays are unconstitutional, the justices said, because their religious content is overemphasized.

Justice Antonin Scalia released a stinging dissent in the courthouse case, declaring, "What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle."

In contrast, a 6-foot-granite monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol — one of 17 historical displays on the 22-acre lot — was determined to be a legitimate tribute to the nation's legal and religious history.

"Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the Establishment clause," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the majority in the case involving the display outside the state capitol of Texas.

Rehnquist was joined in his opinion by Scalia, and justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas. Breyer filed a separate opinion concurring in the result.

"While the court correctly rejects the challenge to the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas Capitol grounds, a more fundamental rethinking of our Establishment Clause jurisprudence remains in order," Thomas wrote in a separate opinion.

Dissenting in the Texas case, Justice John Paul Stevens argued the display was an improper government endorsement of religion. Stevens noted in large letters the monument proclaims 'I AM the LORD thy God."'

"The sole function of the monument on the grounds of Texas' State Capitol is to display the full text of once version of the Ten Commandments," Stevens wrote.

Justices O'Connor, David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg also dissented.