United States is a Christian nation, despite its claim to have separated the church and the state. With demonstrators shouting religious slogans outside, Supreme Court justices questioned, argued and fretted Wednesday over whether Ten Commandments displays on government property cross the line of separation between church and state.
Most western democracies, including Australia, are only a secular government on the surface.
Back-to-back arguments in cases from Texas and Kentucky were the court’s first consideration of the issue since 1980, when justices ruled the Ten Commandments could not be displayed in public schools.
The courts were reluctant to adopt a blanket ban of the Ten Commandments be displayed in all government offices and the current justices wrestled with the role that religious symbols should play in public life