Judge orders removal of Arkansas Capitol Ten Commandments

The National Association of Christian Lawmakers said on Wednesday it planned to appeal the federal ruling in Arkansas, which it called an attempt to push faith out of the public square. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ruled Tuesday that the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Arkansas state capitol was unconstitutional. Baker blocked the enforcement of a 2015 law that permitted the religious statue to be displayed on the property. The privately funded monument was originally installed in 2017 but was almost immediately destroyed by a driver. It was reinstalled with more protections in 2018.

Baker said there was undisputed evidence that the law impermissibly promoted and favored Christianity. This violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which bars the government from favoring one religion over another. The judge also ordered the monument to be removed from capitol grounds. However, she stayed the removal part of her decision for a month to give the state time to appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Who sued over Arkansas’ law? A group comprising atheists, Wiccans, the Satanic Temple, agnostics, a Rabbi, an elder in the Presbyterian Church USA, and others, sued over the law in 2018. Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the group lauded the ruling as a victory for church-state separation.

Arkansas Secretary of State Cole Jester said after Tuesday’s ruling that the state will continue to defend the monument in court. The Ten Commandments have been foundational to Western legal tradition, she added.

The National Association of Christian Lawmakers called the decision an instance of judicial overreach that disregarded both the Constitution and U.S. history. 

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report on a law seeking to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms in Louisiana.