During a recent segment, ABC’s “The View” discussed Louisiana’s decision to display the Ten Commandments in public schools. The predominantly liberal panel of co-hosts criticized the move from the Bayou State, arguing that it violates the principle of separation of church and state.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg kicked off the conversation, posing the question, “Is this theater? Or does he think this is going to stand up in court?” Sunny Hostin opined that she believes the state is confident their decision would hold up to judicial review, despite precedent from the Supreme Court that might suggest the move is unconstitutional.
She responded, “I think he really does think it’s going to stand up in court. Because if you’re going to follow the rule of law, then you really need to follow the US Supreme Court. That’s the rule of law of our land. And I would say the Supreme Court has said that the 10 Commandment displays in public schools are unconstitutional, and that happened in 1980 so we’re talking about nearly identical laws, and a half a century ago, they said it wasn’t okay.”
Hostin continued, suggesting that Louisiana will ignore the judicial precedent, adding that people should be “afraid.” She said, “I think what he is banking on is that this sort of reactive, very partisan Supreme Court will overturn precedent and say, Now this is okay, and we should be very afraid of that, because we’re now an upside down world where you have a precedent from, you know, this century saying you cannot do that anywhere.”
Expressing her own lack of confidence that the precedent will not hold, Hostin insinuated that this would violate the separation of church and state. “I’m not sure. And this is, and I feel terrible saying that, because normally I would say that’s something like super precedent. It’s not super president, but it’s just the definition of church and state and the separation of it, and it’s one of the tenets of our society,” she added.
Goldberg chimed in, refuting the conservative evangelical argument that America was founded on Christian principles which the country should seek to maintain. She posited, that if the Ten Commandments were to be allowed in the schools, whether that would entail other religions receiving similar representation in schools.
She stated, “If they’re saying, if they’re saying that we’re that the the law, what we are going through is lost, because they like to say, you know, that we are a Christian nation, no, we’re a nation of many religions. So if you’re putting the 10 Commandments, does that mean we’re putting the Quran in? Does that mean we’re going to put in the writings of Buddha?” Watch the interview below:
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Sarah Haines railed against posting the Biblical principles in schools, asserting that it would constitute an endorsement of Christianity. She implied this would be at odds with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
“The school posting it becomes a taking a stance or an endorsement of sorts. And I think that is inching into a very problematic place, because Sunny I do not have the legal expertise this would be super concerning. Because unlike abortion, which was something that was decided as a right to privacy and became a precedent over time, this is literally the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.