# Did Oklahoma just ban the Ten Commandments? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 6, 2010, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663 "2010-11-06T02:57:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663/21 "2010-11-06T18:08:56Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yes, this had to be some huge scare tactic to get out the wing nut vote. I have no doubt that many Americans think there is some conspiracy to adopt Sharia law. I guess that’s what happens when you elect a crypto-Muslim as president. There is also the issue, earlier mentioned, of some benches (or individual judges in concurrence/dissent) making comparative-law or history-of-law references to how things are in non-US jurisdiction when examining some new issue brought before them. Although IIRC it has never gone beyond being an informative/comparative/illustrative/suggestive reference to become actual basis for decisions, some of the more conservative faction tend to get very rankled that it’s even brought up. Thing is, in any case, no court in America is going to say strike down DOMA \*because \*there’s gay marriage in Canada, or legalize polygamy _because_ it’s legal in South Africa, or that HCR is sustained \*because \*there’s caselaw to that effect on the British NHS. What, it’s going to be unlawful to even _ **mention** _ it? But indeed, the RW does make a huge deal out of the possibility that this may happen (I recall candidates/commentators in the last election who proudly proclaimed their belief in “American Exceptionalism” as if something to be really proud of) At the state level, as mentioned, it’s kind of pointless; at the Fed level, heck, Congress itself has seen fit to adopt laws first originating abroad (e.g. copyrights that seem to go on forever) but SCOTUS has at most mentioned it as reference, not basis, AFAIK. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663/22 "2010-11-06T18:43:03Z")
Quoth **magellan01** : > [@](#): > > I’d say it shoots for being cute and is just dumb. The Ten Commandments are part of our own culture, from the country’s very founding and earlier. Exactly, they’re from earlier than this country’s founding, and therefore part of a culture that came before us, not our culture. Would it be so difficult to at least go to a new sentence before contradicting yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663/23 "2010-11-07T03:17:36Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I find this bit: > > _The courts shall not look to the legal precepts of other nations or cultures._ > > potentially troubling. As one example, [Hadley v. Baxendale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadley_v_Baxendale) is a case every first year law student studies, and is pretty basic to that area of practice. Fool of a Druid! That’s an _English_ case. England is inhabited mostly by white, (nominally) Christian folks who speak the same language as you and I. They’re not furriners. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2010, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663/24 "2010-11-08T00:46:43Z")
As i posted in the other thread; the ballot measures included: “Screw the muslims”. “Screw the furriners and their laws”. “English (or ‘murrican’ for all state business - we except for 20 or thirty native american languages we already recognize but definitely not Spanish or Tex-mex or whatever the hell them illegals are talking”. “Screw NHC even though it will save us money and insure more Oklahomans”. There is even more fun reading if you google up all the state ballot measures in this elections. I live with morons, sigh. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663/25 "2010-11-10T03:51:10Z")
Those poor Okies–the perils of Sharia is a coming–the feds have fallen into Osama [clutches](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703957804575602922807855194.html)! I guess right wing extremism is mainstream in the OK state? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-oklahoma-just-ban-the-ten-commandments/559663.md?page=1)