That's the crux of a monumental Utah case going before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The dispute erupted after Pleasant Grove allowed one group to post a stone tablet of the Ten Commandments in the city's Pioneer Park. A Salt Lake City-based spiritual group called Summum then tried to post a marker of its own guiding principles, but the Utah County city refused.
On Wednesday, the justices will take up the standoff in a case that could set the standard for how cities across the nation deal with religious monuments and symbols in public squares.
"This is an important case for cities all over the country," says Thomas Baker, a professor at the Florida International University's College of Law in Miami who summarized the case for the American Bar Association. "The Supreme Court is going to revise the rules of access to public spaces and public parks."
The case is the first to examine displays of the Ten Commandments since conservative Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito joined the court. The court is likely to revisit twin decisions in 2005 that ordered the religious message out of a courthouse in Kentucky but allowed it to remain on the grounds of the Texas Capitol.
Pleasant Grove argues that permitting Summum - a Latin term meaning "the sum total of all creation" - to erect its monument could force other cities either to put up any and all proposed markers or potentially toss their own memorials, tablets and statues.
Summum counters that the city cannot discriminate against some religious symbols. If Pleasant Grove allows the Ten Commandments, the group says, the city must also permit the 'even Aphorisms, a list of principles that includes vibration, rhythm, and cause and effect that the group believes Moses also obtained on Mount Sinai.
A federal judge in Utah sided with the city, but the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision.
The two most recent commandments cases, in 2005, saw the nation's high court split 5-4 on how to handle public displays with Justice Stephen Breyer as the crucial swing vote.
Baker says Breyer likely will be key to this case as well and that attorneys will focus their remarks his way.
Pleasant Grove Mayor Mike Daniels, who will fly to Washington to witness Wednesday's oral arguments, said the city's case is strong.
"We have high hopes," he said. "I think they'll rule in our favor."
Interestingly, as the court hears arguments on whether posting the Ten Commandments in a city park opens it up to other religious or spiritual monuments, the justices will be facing a wall in the courtroom that includes a sculpture of Moses holding two tablets meant to symbolize the Ten Commandments.
And the inside door leading to the courtroom includes an engraving of two tablets with Roman numerals representing the commandments as well.
