No Moses In Ohio's New Depiction of History Of Law

Discussions about the Ten Commandments on court house walls have often proceeded from the assumption that any mural depicting lawgivers through history would naturally include Moses among them. So it was refreshing to see a story in the June 27 issue of the Ohio State Bar Association Report titled History of Rule of Law Captured In Painting Collection In Supreme Court of Ohio Library . Six original 4x8 foot oils depicting "the history of the development of the rule of law", commissioned by the Ohio State Bar Association, have been installed in the law library of Ohio's new Supreme Court Building. They depict Hammurabi, Ramses the Great, Draco, The 10 Tables of Roman Law, the signing of the Magna Carta, an allegorical painting of developments in France from Louis XVI to Napoleon, the signing of the US Constitution, and Lady Justice Leading the People (an allegory of liberty, patriotism and the civil rights struggle). But not a mention of Moses or the Ten Commandments. It's nice to see that good lawyers can make their historical point without unnecessarily raising constitutional questions in the process.