Originally Posted by DVPGSR
How is the displaying of a religous symbol an establishment of religion? A cross has the same meaning to Mormons, Catholics, Protestants, Methodists, and Lutherans. So by displaying a cross which religion has been established? Further by displaying a cross which religions are being prohibited from freely exercising their right?
Displaying a Christian symbol (when done by a state actor) shows that the state is endorsing that religion. The original test to determine if state actors could do this came out of a case in which one of the parties was named Lemon and was called the Lemon test.
However, recently the court has basically abandoned the
Lemon test in favor of the endorsement test as set out in
Lynch v. Donnelly,
McCreary County v. ACLU, and
Van Orden v. Perry. Basically the court has said that context matters and a display of a certain religious symbol may be allowed depending upon the context. First case was Christmas display and they said the nativity scene put up by the state was ok because it was in the context of an overall Christmas display. Other two are 10 commandments cases. One display was ok, one was not.
Sorry for the long post, but I'm studying for Con. Law and just went over this part.