In recent years, conflict over the role and display of the Ten Commandments has increasingly broken out in communities across the United States. Perhaps the most recent high-profile incident occurred in 2001, when then Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore moved a 2 ½ ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments—surrounded by excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, National Anthem, National Motto, Pledge of Allegiance, Alabama constitution, and quotations from various "Founding Fathers"—into the rotunda of the state's judicial building. Moore did so in hopes that displaying the Decalogue would call America back to its moral foundations. Instead, he was sued for overstepping the boundaries between religion and state and ordered to remove the monument; Moore refused and ultimately was removed as chief justice.

While not all disputes over the Commandments receive as much publicity, they nonetheless have occurred with some frequency. For many Americans, including Moore, the Decalogue not only is crucial to restoring morality in the country, but it is also part of American identity; in other words, being American means believing in the Ten Commandments. These Americans typically include the Commandments with the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as documents that express basic American values. Certainly, there are those who disagree, but there are large and vocal groups who do not.[1]