Six of the nine United States Supreme Court justices are Catholic. Even Neil Gorsuch, who identifies as an Episcopalian, was raised Catholic. This is an important demographic because of at least one case that could make it to the High Court within a couple of years.
There is movement in the United States at this time where Christian Nationals are attempting to have Stone v. Graham overturned. Stone v. Graham is a 1980 United States Supreme Court decision in which the Supreme Court held that a Kentucky statute “requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public school rooms has no secular legislative purpose, and is therefore unconstitutional.”
The Kentucky statute in question required “the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments, purchased with private contributions, on the wall of each public classroom in the State.”
The Court concluded that the Kentucky law violated the first prong of the Lemon test. The Lemon test consists of three prongs. “First, the statute must have a secular legislative purpose; second, its principal or primary effect must be one that neither advances nor inhibits religion; finally, the statute must not foster `an excessive government entanglement with religion.’”
Louisiana enacted a bill this year that requires the commandments to be posted in every Louisiana public classroom, from kindergarten through college. Many legal experts are predicting that this law will make it to the United States Supreme Court. However, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, “blocked the state law from taking effect, unanimously ruling that Louisiana’s state-sponsored-religion law was ‘facially unconstitutional.’” The Fifth Circuit is considered by many legal experts to be the most conservative of all thirteen federal circuit courts, so I can’t imagine the matter can get to the Supreme Court. My reasoning is that, because of the Catholic majority mentioned earlier, there should be one major reason for the Court to reject any appeal.
There is a difference between the Ten Commandments required in Louisiana and throughout the Bible Belt and the traditional Catholic version, and the difference is significant.
First of all, the numbering alignment is off from the beginning. Catholics and Lutherans follow the numberings created by Saint Augustine of Hippa (the guy who said, “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet), in the Fifth Century. Augustine combined the First and Second Commandments, similar to the grouping found in the Talmud. The King James Version, created in 1611, over a century and one-half after the first Bible was printed by the Gutenberg Press, separates the redundancy of Exodus 20: 2-3.
Next, there is no Catholic commandment about ‘graven images’ found in the Protestant Second Commandment. The First Commandment of Catholics states that there “shalt be no strange gods before Me.” Recently, the Catholic version substituted the Sabbath for “The Lord’s Day.” Also, the Augustine version separates the final two commandments of St. James versions into two separate commandments pertaining to coveting. After all, coveting a person should be more sinful than coveting a neighbor’s ox or an ass.
A Catholic kid in public school, and attending CCD, or Confraternity of Christian Doctrine classes during the week is going to be confused by being exposed to different versions of the same principles.
But are these concerns going to weigh into a decision for the Court to consider, either in accepting or deciding a case on this issue? Or, will the Alito and Thomas side of the bench cave to the popularity of the prevailing side as they have in recent cases?
“The 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Santa Fe vs. Doe) says it all, ‘School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are non-adherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.’”
State Rep. Jim Olsen, an Oklahoma Republican after introducing a bill in the Oklahoma House Chamber last year said: “The Ten Commandments is one of the foundations of our nation.” That’s a weak assessment of our country’s infrastructure. The Ten Commandments are not even close to being a foundation of our nation. There are too many varieties of commandments to be considered a brick in a weak foundation.
The solid foundations of our nation include the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, “known collectively as the Charters of Freedom.” There are no alternative documents. If the United States should post anything in a classroom it should be the Bill of Rights, with the First Amendment highlighted.
This article was originally published in The Prairie Progressive, September, 2025 issue.
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Didn’t know this about the Court or the differences in the Commandments. Thanks.