In a decision that should/em not have surprised me, but somewhat did after a series of more hopeful articles, the United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to ban the display of the 10 Commandments in courtrooms. Somehow, their own frieze is “neutral” and thus allowable.[1]/a I am not really sure how that logic works./p

Particularly puzzling to me is how, given the decidedly religious bent of our founding documents, from the Declaration of Independence with its references to a Creator, to the letters of all the founding fathers, Justice Souter found that the Constitution mandates neutrality not just between religions, but between religion and “nonreligion.”[1]/a It is thus at all surprising that there was a dissent from Justices Scalia and Thomas (and obviously others, 5-4 after all), who take different views on originalism, but both come down as originalists./p [1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062700416_pf.html /font