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Rebecca Johnson
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Legal Environment of Business
Dr. Sompayrac
Case Brief #1
McCreary County, Kentucky, et al. v. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, et al.
545 U.S. 844 (2005)
FACTS: In the summer of 1999, two Kentucky counties, McCreary and Pulaski, displayed in
their courthouses, large, gold-framed copies of an abbreviated text of the King James Version of
the Ten Commandments, which also included a citation to the Book of Exodus. In each county,
the Commandments were readily visible; in McCreary County, the placement of the Ten
Commandments responded to an order of county legislature which required that “the display be
posted in ‘a very high traffic area’ of the courthouse”, while in Pulaski County, the
Commandments were hung in a ceremony that was presided over by a pastor and county Judge-
Executive, who called them “good rules to live by”. In November of that same year, the ACLU
sued the two counties in Federal District Court for their displays, citing violation of the
establishment of religion clause of the Federal Constitution’s First Amendment. Less than a
