What Does “History and Tradition” Require?

Source: Law & Liberty
by Mark David Hall

“Some advocates of the strict separation between church and state have suggested that for a practice to be constitutional, there must be a long history and tradition of states engaging in that specific act. For instance, in several of the recent cases involving posting copies of the Ten Commandments in public schools, a few advocates and judges thought it significant that the states could not demonstrate that there is a long and unbroken tradition of posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. A chief problem with this argument is that the Supreme Court has never said that there must be longstanding and widespread history of governments engaging in specific practices in order for them to be permissible.” (10/13/26)

https://lawliberty.org/what-does-history-and-tradition-require/