House leader Tom DeLay attacks church-state separation.A top official of the U.S. House of Representatives claimed in early March that the First Amendment does not call for the separation of church and state
The day before the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in cases involving public display of the Ten Commandments Ten Commandments or Decalogue [Gr.,=ten words], in the Bible, the summary of divine law given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. They have a paramount place in the ethical system in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. , House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) said he hoped the high court would finally recognize that church-state separation is not called for within the Constitution. "I hope the Supreme Court will finally read the Constitution and see there's no such thing, or no mention, of separation of church and state in the Constitution," said DeLay. The Supreme Court on March 2 heard disputes from Texas and Kentucky dealing with Commandments displays. Americans United for Separation of Church and State Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is a religious freedom advocacy group in the United States which promotes the separation of church and state, a legal doctrine seen by the AU as being enshrined in the Establishment filed friend-of-the-court briefs in both cases, Van Orden v. Perry Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005) was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States, involving whether a government-sponsored display of the Ten Commandments at the Texas State Capitol in Austin violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. and McCreary County v. ACLU ACLU: see American Civil Liberties Union. , arguing that the First Amendment requires a separation of church and state. Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison explained on different occasions that the First Amendment was intended to maintain a division between religion and government. |
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