Stone v.

Graham
By: Zhihui Zhong, Morgan Beck, Alyssa Crown, Olivia
Houghton, Maggie Emerson, Madison Morrissette
 Events & Details of the Case
Sydell Stone and many other parents
challenged a Kentucky state law that
required the Ten Commandments be
posted on the walls of all public
school classrooms. Filing a claim
against James Graham, who was the
superintendent of public schools in
Kentucky at the time.

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Question: Did the Kentucky public school
postings violate the Establishment Clause
of the First Amendment?

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 Concurring
Opinion
“...Posting of religious texts on the wall
serves no such educational function. If
the posted copies of the Ten
Commandments are to have any
effect at all, it will be to induce the
schoolchildren to read, meditate upon,
perhaps to venerate and obey, the
Commandments…”4
 Dissenting Opinion
“The Establishment Clause does not
require that the public sector is
insulated from all things which may
have a religious significance or
origin…”

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● Stone v. Graham stood as the Supreme Court’s
only pronouncement on the display of the Ten
Commandments in public places for 25 years.
● In 2005, the Court upheld the display of the Ten
Commandments on the Texas Capitol grounds in
Van Orden v. Perry.
● It declared displays of the Ten Commandments
in two Kentucky county courthouses
unconstitutional in McCreary County v.
American Civil Liberties Union.

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The Ten Commandments

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.

2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD
your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your
neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

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- In 1978, Kentucky enacted a law requiring the Ten
Commandments to be issued in every public school
classroom. Each plaque was purchased with private
donations and contained the following statement: “The
secular application of the Ten Commandments is clearly
seen in its adoption as the fundamental legal code of
Western Civilization and the Common Law of the United
States."

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The Commonwealth insists that
the Act conforms to secular
legislative purposes and that the
legislature requires the following
symbols to be printed in small
letters at the bottom of each Ten
Commandments:
The Ten Commandments, as the basic code
of Western civilization and American common
law, its secular application was obvious when
it was adopted.
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 Conclusion
A 5-4 curiam decision leading the Supreme Court to
rule that the Kentucky public schools violated the
first part of the test established in Lemon v.
Kurtzman. This violated the Establishment Clause of
the Constitution.
The Court found that the Ten Commandments
posted “had no secular legislative purpose” and
were “plainly religious in nature.”

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 Works Cited
● Bennett, Mike. “10 Commandments List.” Life, Hope & Truth, https://lifehopeandtruth.com/bible/10-
commandments/the-ten-commandments/10-commandments-list/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2018.
● Wermiel, Stephen. “Stone v. Graham.” The First Amendment Encyclopedia, http://www.mtsu.edu/first-
amendment/article/696/stone-v-graham. Accessed 23 Oct. 2018.
● “Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980).” First Amendment Schools,
http://www.firstamendmentschools.org/freedoms/case.aspx?id=1422. Accessed 29 Oct. 2018.
● “Stone v. Graham.” Oyez, https://www.oyez.org/cases/1980/80-321. Accessed 23 Oct. 2018.
● “Stone v. Graham.” LII / Legal Information Institute,
https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/449/39. Accessed 23 Oct. 2018.
● https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwi3t7rzx77eAhUPla
wKHbjRAFAQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.endthebacklog.org%2Fkentucky&psig=AOvVa
w0VEPRNY-A-CLZCdwmEgpgr&ust=1541552274548337

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