Texas-Like Commandments Monument Under Attack in Sooner State
by Allie Martin
November 28, 2005
(AgapePress) - - The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against another city over a public display of the Ten Commandments as part of a historical exhibit. Last November officials in Haskell County, Oklahoma, erected a marble monument depicting the Ten Commandments on one side, with the Mayflower Compact on the other. The monument sits in Stigler, Oklahoma, the seat of Haskell County. Now the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit seeking removal of the monument. The suit, Green v. Haskell County, was filed on behalf of Stigler resident Jim Green, a disabled 68-year-old veteran, who claims the monument constitutes government interference in individuals' religious freedoms.
"[W]hen the government starts dictating what religious ideas are 'right,' it interferes with a person's choice," Green said in a statement released in connection with the lawsuit. He contends that placement of the monument near the courthouse "sends the message that if you don't subscribe to this specific thought, you will have no access to the government."
The Ten Commandments display sits on county grounds along with other memorials dedicated to those who died in the Civil War, World War I, and World War II.
Erik Stanley is with Liberty Counsel, which is representing the county. He says the ACLU is fighting a tough battle in light of last summer's Supreme Court ruling over a similar monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds in Austin.
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"The ACLU is going to argue that because the [Haskell County] monument was erected only a year ago that it's different than Texas because Texas's monument has been on the Texas state capitol grounds for about 40 years," the Liberty Counsel attorney says. According to Stanely, Supreme Court Associate" Justice John Paul Stevens provided the swing vote in the Texas case. "[Stevens said] that basically because the monument had been there for 40 years it was constitutional -- that was really the only ground that he decided the case on," Stanley explains. "So that's going to be the battle."
But the lawyer insists that Haskell County's public display of the Decalogue will be defended.
"We are going to argue that this Ten Commandments is constitutional," he says. "That if Texas is allowed to have on its state capitol grounds a monument that is essentially identical to what Haskell County has, then Haskell County should be able to have the exact same monument on its grounds."
Stanley contends that there should be no "constitutional distinction" between the two monuments. "We're going to take this case up," he adds, "and if we have to, we'll take it to the U.S. Supreme Court in order to clarify this issue."
Liberty Counsel represents more than a dozen governmental displays that include the Ten Commandments.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
