HARRISBURG - In Pennsylvania's highest court, the separation of church and state is about 10 feet.
The larger-than-life-size painting depicting Moses chiseling two stone tablets with the Ten Commandments spelled out below has graced the walls of the Supreme Court for 75 years.
It hangs over the bench, directly above the chief justice's seat.
About 800,000 people visit the Capitol building each year, and state officials say as far as they know no one has raised an objection to its presence.
"You can't just say this is religious," said Ruthann Hubbert-Kemper, executive director of the Capitol Preservation Committee, which oversees the ongoing restoration of the building, built in 1906. "This is totally different. You can walk in the room and see it's the history of law."
The painting is one of a series of 16 works by Violet Oakley circling the lavish courtroom. Oakley was recognized by the New York Telegraph as Pennsylvania's "most famous artist" in 1926.
The Supreme Court, with its gold-leaf moldings, stained-glass dome, and mahogany woodwork, is just one of the grandiose rooms in the Capitol building designed by Philadelphia architect Joseph Miller Huston.
With the building envisioned as a "palace of art," Huston drew on the finest architecture in the world - the Greek temples, Michelangelo's dome at St. Peter's Basillica in Vatican City, and the Paris Opera - in his design.
Oakley's Supreme Court tableaux is rich in Judeo-Christian imagery and compare law to a musical scale ranging from divine law and the law of nature to more modern common law and international law.
Bathed in rich hues of burnt orange and gold and bisected by art deco-inspired lightning bolts, the painting of Moses and the Ten Commandments represents the Decalogue, or a biblical idea of law.
"It doesn't bother me," said Laurie Kinney, of Myerstown, Pa., when asked whether the presence of the artwork violated the separation of church and state.
Kinney, who was chaperoning a school tour of the Capitol yesterday said: "After Sept. 11, I think more people looked to the Ten Commandments. And after all, our money says 'In God We Trust.' "
Officials of the American Civil Liberties Union say that while no one has approached them about suing the commonwealth over the Capitol painting, it differs from the Chester County plaque in several significant ways.
"The painting is part of a larger mural with other references, some of them historical. Therefore you put it in a different context," said Larry Frankel, executive director of the Philadelphia office of the ACLU. "In Chester County, a specific religious group supported and paid for the plaque's installation. Clearly it was religious; it was not historic or artistic."
State officials say the Attorney General's Office would be prepared to defend the painting if it came under legal fire.
"We would argue that the Ten Commandments is an integral part of a larger display that depicts the Western legal tradition," said Sean Connolly, spokesman for Attorney General Mike Fisher.
The state made the same argument defending the Capitol Christmas tree in a lawsuit in 1990 when the ACLU challenged the presence of six crosses in the 1,000 ornaments donated by Pennsylvania residents. The ACLU later dropped its suit, Connolly said.
The fourth graders from Myerstown Elementary School in Lebanon County, who toured the courtroom yesterday were far more interested in the room's riches than any religious controversy.
When a tour guide asked whether there were any questions, one little boy's hand shot up. He wanted to know if the ceiling was painted in real gold.
The answer? Yes.