Court takes on Commandments case

BBC NEWS | Americas | Court takes on Commandments case: "In a surprise move, the US Supreme Court has agreed to rule on whether it is legal to display the Ten Commandments on government property.
Justices will hear appeals on the politically sensitive issue involving displays in Texas and Kentucky.
Lower courts in the US have recently made a number of contradictory rulings on the issue.
The US constitution's First Amendment holds that church and state should be kept firmly apart.
In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky law requiring schools to post copies of the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional.
Two appeals
The justices will hear an appeal by Thomas Van Orden, a homeless lawyer from Austin, Texas, who lost a lawsuit to have a 2m (6ft) red granite monument removed from the grounds of the state Capitol.
The court will also consider whether a Kentucky court wrongly barred the posting of copies of the Ten Commandments in the state's courthouses.
Last week, it rejected an appeal from Alabama's former Chief Justice, Roy Moore, who lost his job after refusing to remove a Ten Commandments from a court building. "