The First Amendment, the Ninth Circuit, and the Ten Commandments

While not exactly on the usual topics of this blog, the Ninth Circuit's opinion in Card v. City of Everett, No. 05-35996 (Mar. 26, 2008) is worth a read.  It involves the question of whether the placement of a reproduction of the Ten Commandments (the tablets, not the movie) on the grounds of Old City Hall in Everett, Washington violates the state and federal establishment clauses.  As usual in these type of cases, the facts are fascinating, as is the debate over the controlling law. 

In the end, the Ninth Circuit held that the city's display does not run afoul of either the Washington or the U.S. Constitutions.  Perhaps the best line of the opinion is in the concurring opinion of Judge Fernandez:

I applaud Judge Wardlaw’s scholarly and heroic attempt to create a new world of useful principle out of the Supreme Court’s dark materials.

Slip op. at 3039 (Fernandez, J., concurring) (citing Milton, Paradise Lost).  Read the complete opinion here.