After I had breakfast today at my favorite local diner in West Chester (where I live), I drove by the Chester County Courthouse to view the Ten Commandments plaque which was unveiled yesterday. I must say that I found it a welcome sight. Hard to believe that this quaint little town with brick streets and historical stone buildings could be the center of so much controversy. . . Todays’ edition of the Daily Local News (Chester County local news) reports: “WEST CHESTER — The plaque is back” and the Philadelphia Inquirer reports “Chesco takes the cover off plaque: In June, a court ruled it did not violate the Constitution.” Both articles report that the cover came off “unceremoniously” yesterday after the county solicitor’s office received the order Wednesday morning from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that the county could uncover the plaque at any time. The Daily Local News reports as well:
Commissioners’ Chairman Colin Hanna said that the county decided not to make a big deal about removing the shroud after remarks made in the Third Circuit Court noted that the commissioners had chosen not to sensationalize the issue.“The Third Circuit Court was very gracious in its remarks concerning the commissioners, in saying that we acted thoughtfully and with a lack of sensationalism,” Hanna said. “It seemed to be the most consistent with the Third Circuit Court’s decision that we did not particularly want to have a ceremony.”
As most are aware, in late June a three-judge panel for the Third Circuit unanimously overturned a March 2002 ruling in which a federal trial judge found that the plaque represented an unconstitutional endorsement of religion by government and ordered its removal. The decision by the Third Circuit, Freethought Society v. Chester County, was followed by another Eleventh Circuit court decision, Glassroth v. Moore, which involved a different result with different facts. Some are saying there is a split in the circuits now, but many argue that the facts are so different that the two cases can be reconciled.
If you have time for a thought-provoking journey into what bloggers are saying about the cases, this would be a good place to start and as well as Jeff Cooper’s Cooped Up post. An interesting discussion has centered around the Ten Commandments and whether they are an important foundation to American law, which was started by Eugene Volokh here and continued on here by Edward Boyd at Zonitics.com, with more here and here. My own personal belief is that they are indeed a very important foundation to American law and that many of the basic principles found in the Bible are woven throughout the laws and history of our country.