Keeping the Commandments

Abstract

This opinion piece reflects on the Supreme Court's decision in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S. 460 (2009), which upheld the constitutionality of a Ten Commandments monument in a city park in Utah. The Court's primary reasoning -- that the monument was a form of permissible government speech, and the First Amendment does not give a private citizen a "heckler's veto" over an old democratic decision -- is better than the reasoning the Court offered in its earlier cases on religious symbols in public life. 

Keywords: Religious Symbols, Ten Commandment Displays, Establishment Clause, Heckler's Veto, First Amendment, Government Speech