BREAKING NEWS ~ High court allows Commandments display on capitol grounds News
BREAKING NEWS ~ High court allows Commandments display on capitol grounds

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Ten Commandments can be displayed on the grounds of a state capitol building. The US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had previously ruled [PDF] in Van Orden v. Perry [Northwestern University backgrounder] that a six-foot-tall display of the Commandments on the grounds of the Texas state capitol in Austin was constitutionally acceptable because it had a secular purpose and a resaonable viewer touring the capitol grounds would not conclude that the state was endorsing the Commandments' religious message. Read the Court's opinion [PDF]. AP has more.

The high court ruling follows one announced earlier Monday that held that courthouse displays of the Commandments were constitutionaly prohibited [JURIST report].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

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