OneNewsNow.com - Supreme Court Protects First Amendment, Ten Commandments

Charlie Butts - OneNewsNow

You can listen to the report here.

The U.S. Supreme Court has awarded Pleasant Grove City, Utah, a major victory in a free-speech case.

A self-described church called Summum demanded permission to place a religious monument in a city park that also contained a Ten Commandments display. Jay Sekulow of the American Center for Law & Justice explains the group.
 
"They're kind of a Gnostic religion recently formed in the last 25 years. They're based in Salt Lake City. They've got about a couple hundred adherents," he notes. "Interestingly, in the case the court really didn't pay much attention to the fact of who Summum was -- although they do mention it in a footnote -- but was more focused on what they were asking."
 
In the ruling of Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, the court said a community can make such decisions based on knowledge of the character of a community, according to Sekulow. "The court was very clear in saying that a community's own history [is] often represented in the monuments that they display and that they allow to be displayed, and I think that's part and parcel of who they are," he adds.
 
All in all, Sekulow says the decision is a landmark victory for the First Amendment. It "clears the way for government to express its views and its history through the selection of monuments -- including religious monuments and displays," he explains in a press release.