Tortured logic

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You shall have no other gods before me.

-- The First Commandment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

-- The First Amendment

In its latest ruling on church and state, the Supreme Court has once again tortured itself and the public (not to mention God, which the court increasingly wishes the public wouldn't mention).

In one opinion, the court seemed to invoke a doctrine more suitable to good wine than good law.

A display of the Ten Commandments at the Texas state capitol building in Austin was found to be constitutional, because the 6-foot-tall monument had been there since 1961 and no one had complained about it. But framed copies of the Ten Commandments at two rural Kentucky courthouses were said by the slim majority to be unconstitutional because they were of more recent vintage and were displayed for the express purpose of advancing a particular religion.

While both votes were 5-4, one in favor of such displays and the other opposed, the court continues refusing to offer any standard for its rulings on religion.

As Justice Antonin Scalia noted, "What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle."