The Ten Commandments and the Establishment Clause

The Ten Commandments and the Establishment Clause The United States of America is a free country that encourages its citizens to observe and express their freedom. This freedom is expressed in different ways and forms which include the freedom to exercise any type of religion without the government’s interference or support. This freedom is primarily safeguarded by the Constitution. The forefathers of American democracy proclaim the separation of Church and State to ensure that there is no encroaching of powers between the two entities. However, further actions of the state tend to support the cause of the church and vice versa. With these developments, one could argue that the state and the church are not totally independent from the other and it made the establishment clause more obscure and confusing as the state sometimes violated its own view of neutrality towards the said issue. The citizens of the United States of America are free to exercise their own religion. Thus, it is not surprising to know that the country’s population is practicing diverse religions, traditions and sects. The citizens are free to exercise religion without any repercussion and malice as long as it does not encroach or violated the right of others. However there are instances in which the government and the state were being sued by its citizens for allegedly favoring the Christian religion through the posting of the Ten Commandments in school and in state owned establishment. The Judicial Courts, in exercising its authority to resolve issues such as the constitutionality of a State’s action stated in Van Orden vs Perry Case the state of Texas did not violate “The Establishment Clause,” when it displayed “The Ten Commandments” in its premises. US Supreme Court Justice Rehnquist in his decision stated that“The Ten Commandments are religious, but the person whom Judeo-Christians believed to have delivered the Commandments, Moses, was also a lawgiver. Here, Texas has treated