Journal of Catholic Legal Studies

How Secular Ideology is Marginalizing the Rule of Law and Catholic Contributions to Law and Society II:

The Ten Commandments and the Rejection of Divine Law in American Jurisprudence

By Dr. Charles I. Lugosi

State-enforced discrimination that exiles displays of the Ten Commandments from the public forum infringes more than the free exercise of religion.  It symbolizes the death of natural law and the rule of law in American jurisprudence.  Unless this is understood and rectified, all that will remain is hostility toward religion, rule by law, and the supremacy of the secular state.  Over the last 100 years, two pronged constitutional attacks were mounted against the teachings of the Ten Commandments.  The first prong of the attack took place under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and resulted in the legalization of conduct that is in disobedience to the Ten Commandments.  The second prong of the attack utilized the First Amendment and argued that the text of the Ten Commandments may not be publicly displayed on government property based on the mythical separation of Church and State.  This article focuses on the latter attack and concludes that current Establishment Clause jurisprudence is ridiculous, and has led to conflicting results that ought to be abandoned, and replaced with a bright-line precedent in favor of religious liberty that will not only celebrate, but also unapologetically observe, the Ten Commandments in public life.