Court Opinion

ID: 9817353
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 04:16:49.472693+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:27:49.499946
License: Public Domain

RICHARD S. ARNOLD, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I join and applaud most of the Court’s excellent opinion, including all of part I. *1043and that portion of part II. dealing with the Lemon “test.”
I would like to say, in addition, that I believe this monument is also invalid under the Larson test. The words on the monument clearly prefer Christianity and Judaism. As the Court very properly remarks in words that I think should be heard everywhere:
The monument does much more than acknowledge God; it is an instruction from the Judeo-Christian God on how he requires his followers to live. To say a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments and various religious and patriotic symbols is nothing more than an “acknowledgment of God” diminishes their sanctity to believers and belies the words themselves.
Ante, at 1042.
I concur without reservation in the result, affirmance of the. judgment of the District Court.