“Those who wrote the Constitution believed that morality was essential to the well-being of society and that encouragement of religion was the best way to foster morality . . .

Presidents continue to conclude the Presidential oath with the words “so help me God.” Our legislatures, state and national, continue to open their sessions with prayer led by official chaplains. The sessions of this Court continue to open with the prayer “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.” Invocation of the Almighty by our public figures, at all levels of government, remains commonplace. Our coinage bears the motto “IN GOD WE TRUST.” And our Pledge of Allegiance contains the acknowledgment that we are a Nation “under God” . . .

With all of this reality (and much more) staring it in the face, how can the Court possibly assert that “the First Amendment mandates governmental neutrality between … religion and nonreligion,” . . . and that “[m]anifesting a purpose to favor . . . adherence to religion generally” . . . is unconstitutional? Who says so? Surely not the words of the Constitution. Surely not the history and traditions that reflect our society’s constant understanding of those words. Surely not even the current sense of our society, recently reflected in an Act of Congress adopted unanimously by the Senate and with only 5 nays in the House of Representatives . . . criticizing a Court of Appeals opinion that had held “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional . . .

What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle. That is what prevents judges from ruling now this way, now that — thumbs up or thumbs down — as their personal preferences dictate. Today’s opinion forthrightly (or actually, somewhat less than forthrightly) admits that it does not rest upon consistently applied principle”. — Justice Antonin Scalia, dissenting in Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that displays of the Ten Commandments in two county courthouses in Kentucky violated the First Amendment. (McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky)