The Establishment Clause: One Simple Point

File:Decalogue parchment by Jekuthiel Sofer 1768.jpg

The first amendment to the US Constitution begins, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...."

Notice that it does not say "Congress shall not establish a religion." It says "shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." I make this observation because in my experience people defending, say, laws that put a depiction of two tablets with ten commandments on them in public places are apt to ask, "What religion does it establish?'

Their point apparently is that the event to which such art makes allusion is important to at least three world religions, thus the depiction thereof in a courtroom is not an "establishment" of any of those religions, thus it is not a violation of the establishment clause.

I attempt to point out, when I encounter such a feint, that the language quoted above doesn't merely prohibit Congress from establishing a religion. It prohibits laws respecting an establishment of religion. Even, presumably, several at once.

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