Ethics

Victory in Summum Case

By Ed Brayton

Okay, some people are going to say that a 9-0 loss for Summum in their challenge to get a Seven Aphorisms monument in a public park next to a Ten Commandments monument is a loss. I think it's a victory. Here's the full ruling, which is quite complex. Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion, which was joined by everyone except Justice Souter. Souter wrote his own concurrence agreeing with the result but rejecting most of the reasoning.

Stevens and Ginsburg also have their own concurring opinion, agreeing with the result but rejecting part of the reasoning. Scalia and Thomas also had a concurring opinion doing the same thing. And so did Breyer. Most notable is that the majority opinion clearly accepts the notion that once the government accepts a privately donated monument, it becomes government speech rather than private speech. He thus rejects the public forum free speech analysis:

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).