OPINION:
In the American Scene item “Court: Judge must remove Commandments” (Nation, Thursday) it is reported that a three-judge panel of a U.S. district court ruled that a judge violated the constitutional separation of church and state by hanging the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.
I do not understand this ruling. The term “separation of church and state” does not appear in the Constitution, which simply states in the First Amendment that “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” The obvious question is: How can the placing of the Ten Commandments in a courtroom be interpreted as Congress making a law respecting the establishment of religion? I don’t think Congress has passed any such law.
DANIEL P. MCKIM
Springfield, Va.
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