Oklahoma commandments display passes court test.A federal court has upheld display of a 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. monument on an Oklahoma courthouse lawn. In a 43-page opinion handed down in mid-August, U.S. District Judge Ronald A. White chided the plaintiffs for bringing the challenge, bemoaned the federal court precedent regarding government displays of religious symbols, quoted Dante, discussed the Catholic Church's definition of purgatory purgatory (pûrg`ətôr'ē) [Lat.,=place of purging], in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, the state after death in which the soul destined for heaven is purified. and laced the opinion with coy references to religion before concluding that the monument is constitutional. White said the 8-foot-tall monument erected at the Haskell County Haskell County is the name of several counties in the United States:
Struggling through what he called First Amendment "limbo," White concluded that Haskell County officials had not subverted the First Amendment by allowing a local citizen, backed by financing of "local religious leaders and church groups, all of the Christian faith," to erect the religious display on the courthouse lawn. The precedent surrounding public displays of religious symbols proved frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: for White, who wrote, "Like wandering in the wilderness for forty years, it [church-state jurisprudence jurisprudence (j  r'ĭspr d`əns), study of the nature and the origin and development of law. ] really gets us little closer to the Promised Land." (Green v. Board of County Commissioners)
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