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A Monumental Decision

By "Captain Liberty" and "Rumpole"

Monuments in parks are different from all other types of speech. The decision to place a monument, or not,  is a form of government speech and thus not subject to scrutiny under the free speech clause. Thus held the Supreme Court in Pleasant Grove City, Utah v. Summum.(The title links to the opinion.) Summum (for those few of you ignorant of Utah fringe religious groups) wanted to place a stone monument containing "the seven aphorisms of Summum" in Pioneer Park, which contains 11 other monuments, including that Constitutional firecracker, the Ten Commandments. Justice Alito ( Motto: "Not quite Scalia, but trying.") wrote that [T]he placement of a permanent monument in a public park is best viewed as a form of  government speech and is therefore not subject to scrutiny under the Free Speech Clause...continue to full post

Full post as published by Justice Building Blog on February 26, 2009 (boomark / email).