Amending the 8th Commandment ...

Well, it's been an interesting week at the U.S. Supreme Court.

One ruling, with Associate Justice Clarence Thomas as principal cheerleader, effectively ends the ability of educational institutions to use affirmative action as a tool to broaden the cultural and racial makeups of their student bodies.

Thomas himself was admitted to Yale University many moons ago as part of its affirmative action program. Go figure.

Another ruling gave the go-ahead to Christian graphic artist Lorie Smith, of Colorado, to post notice on her webpage stating that she will not create wedding websites for gay couples. Analysts suggest the rather narrow precedent will open the door to wider discrimination. 

The curious thing about the latter case (303 Creative LLC et al. vs. Elenis et al.) is that the plaintiff's case is imaginary rather than actual. Smith's case was based upon a "pre-enforcement challenge" to Colorado law that demands equal treatment for all when public accommodations are involved.

If she had posted a discriminatory notice on her webpage, Smith alleged, she would have been prosecuted under the Colorado statute. But she didn't --- and hadn't been. So go figure again.

Now, as it turns out, even an example of a request for service from a same-sex couple cited by Smith in her case was fiction. You can read more about that in a Washington Post piece headlined, "Man cited in Supreme Court LGBTQ rights case says he was never involved."

Fundamentalist Christians love those Ten Commandments, as mentioned in the the texts of Exodus and Deuteronomy, including "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

The unspoken fundamentalist amendment to that commandment is, of course, "unless it's politically expedient to do so."