I fully believe the Ten Commandments has a place on government property, especially in and around courthouses.
There has been, recently, a court case in (I think) Alabama where the government was being sued because the Ten Commandments were on display outside of a county courthouse. The argument against them being on display was that by doing so the government of Alabama was effectively sponsoring Christianity and trying to force it on the residents. I am not debating any of this. I do not doubt that was the intention of the display and further believe, as previously stated, it is not the job of government to sponsor a religion. In all of the debate I have heard on this subject, this is the only angle I have heard. On one side we have the religious right, claiming that America was founded on Christian values and should therefore continue to espouse these values. On the other, we have liberal secularists who claim religion has no place in public policy. If those were the only debatable points, I would fall on the secular side of the argument... however, it is not the only angle on this subject from which to debate. Let's talk history...
The Ten Commandments, from a historical perspective, have had a profound and lasting impact on our culture and legal system. For the last 4,000 years they have guided first the Jewish people and then Christians on questions of right and wrong. The very basis of Judeo-Christian law is, in fact, the Ten Commandments. Now, I just got done arguing that we should not base our nation's laws on religious ones, and that is very true. For the present and the future we should not. But there is the fact that in the past, church and state were not separated. For the last 1,700 years the common thread behind the legal systems of those nations who have had the greatest influence on that of our own has been Judeo-Christian. Judeo-Christian law is based upon the Ten Commandments.
The Ten Commandments are not the only religious symbols used to depict justice from a historical perspective. The following paragraph is taken directly from the US Supreme Court website (http://www.supremecourtus.gov/about/figuresofjustice.pdf):
"One of the most recognized legal symbols visible in the architecture of the Supreme Court Building is the female figure representing Justice, who is depicted in three sculptural groups. Portraying Justice as a female figure dates back to depictions of Themis and Justicia in ancient mythology. Themis, known for her clear-sightedness, was the Greek Goddess of Justice and Law. In Roman mythology, Justicia (Justice) was one of the four Virtues along with Prudence, Fortitude and Temperance."
No one would argue that Greek and Roman mythology is a current religion. So arguing that Justicia should not appear on our government buildings from a religious basis would be rather pointless, but... there was a time when Greek and Roman deities were worshipped. The goddess Themis was looked to in ancient Greece for questions of law and justice. A comparison could therefore be made between Themis dispensing law and justice and God dictating the Ten Commandments to Moses. While they both have religious origins, we should not and must not discount them from the historical context. Just as Themis and Justicia belong on our public buildings, so, too, do the Ten Commandments.
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