IN 2009 Oklahoma\u2019s legislature passed a bill ordering that a monumental version of the Ten Commandments\u201d\u201dwhich it cited as \u201can important component of the moral foundation of the laws and legal system of the United States of America and of the state of Oklahoma\u201d\u009d\u201d\u201dshould be placed in the grounds of its state capitol building. The bill specified that Oklahoma would not pay for the monument; Mike Ritze, the bill\u2019s sponsor, and his family donated it to the state. It was erected on the capitol\u2019s north side in November 2012, and there it still stands.<\/p>\n
The text is (not surprisingly) identical to that on a Ten Commandments monument in the grounds of the Texas capitol in Austin, which, Mr Ritze\u2019s bill slyly notes, the \u201cSupreme Court ruled constitutional\u201d\u009d in 2005. In that case, Van Orden v Perry, the court held that the Ten Commandments \u201chave an undeniable historical meaning\u201d\u009d as well as a religious one. It also found that a message does not violate the First Amendment\u2019s prohibition of \u201can establishment of religion\u201d\u009d simply because it has some religious content….<\/p>\n