Ten Commandments "Basis of Our Laws" Position

[RJLipkin at aol.com]

I think the current  use of the claim that our laws are based on the Ten 
Commandments, or at least  the way I understand this phrase in its strongest 
sense, is that  the Ten  Commandments are our law's foundation in two senses: (1) 
Our laws are  derived historically, conceptually, and so forth in a unique  
manner from  the Ten Commandments, so that if the Ten  Commandments never existed 
our law would be recognizably different, if it would  exist at all, and (2) 
because of (1) (perhaps or as a separate manner),  justification of our laws 
must refer to the Ten Commandments.  (I'm not  entirely sure (1) and (2) are 
distinct in any interesting way).  By  "current use" (above) I mean how the 
contention functions in political discourse  today.
 
Bobby


 
Robert Justin  Lipkin
Professor of Law
Widener University School of  Law
Delaware
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