Oklahoma high court says Ten Commandments must be removed

A federal judge has ruled that a Ten Commandments monument at a western Pennsylvania school violates the U.S. Constitution, but did not order that it will be removed.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation wants to place on the Capitol grounds a monument representing atheism.

Dr. Carl Rubenstein, a retired cardiologist serving as Interfaith Alliance president, said a letter recently was sent to Fallin and several legislators asking them to heed the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s ruling to remove the monument.

“It’s important to keep in mind that the Legislature, with overwhelming bipartisan majorities, passed a bill in 2009 allowing the installation of a Ten Commandments monument outside the Oklahoma State Capitol and Democrat Governor Brad Henry signed that bill into law”.

Judge McVerry said the monument, which has stood on the grounds of Connellsville Area Junior High School since 1957, “runs afoul” of the Establishment Clause.

The day after the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office notified a Hindu group it could not build a statue to their monkey god, Lord Hanamun, on the capitol grounds in Little Rock, the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) asked the state to allow it to construct a monument saying “there are no gods”.

There are many places in both states where displaying the Ten Commandments might be uplifting or encourage thoughtful reflection, on private property where the public might see it. The catch is that, even when the government is speaking, there’s at least one constitutional limit on what it can say: It can’t endorse religion.

The Supreme Court has ruled Ten Commandment displays unconstitutional in some contexts and constitutional in others. What happens to the monument once it is removed from the Capitol grounds has also not been determined. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Then it would appear that Arkansas was aiming to allow a diverse range of cultural and religious traditions to be represented on the state capitol’s grounds.

The American Civil Liberties Union will likely sue Arkansas over their monument, and they will likely win, as was the case in Oklahoma.