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Constitutional Law Keyed to Choper
Van Orden v. Perry
Citation:
545 U.S. 677 (2005)Facts
In 1961, the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated a granite monolith displaying the text of the Ten Commandments to the State of Texas. The monument stands six feet high and three feet wide and is located on the north side of the Texas State Capitol between the Capitol building and the Supreme Court building. The monument is one of 17 monuments and 21 historical markers on the 22-acre Capitol grounds that commemorate the “people, ideals, and events that compose Texan identity.” Thomas Van Orden, who frequently visited the Capitol grounds to use the Supreme Court library, filed suit in 2002 seeking both a declaration that the monument’s placement violated the Establishment Clause and an injunction requiring its removal. The monument had stood unchallenged for forty years before Van Orden’s lawsuit.
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