Nearly a month after Arkansas State Sen. Jason Rapert defied warnings from church/state separation activists and installed a stand-alone Ten Commandments monument outside the State Capitol, multiple groups have filed lawsuits against the state.
You can read the entire saga of the monument here. Most relevant is how Rapert tried putting up this monument last June, but a man literally drove into it, shattering it, the day it was erected. While Rapert quickly got to work replacing the Christian display, it also stalled any potential lawsuits.
With the new monument in place (surrounded by four small concrete barriers), it’s time to fight back.
The first lawsuit comes from a coalition of non-theistic groups, including the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Humanist Association, the Arkansas Society of Freethinkers, and seven individuals (both religious and nonreligious) who live in the state.
The sole defendant is Secretary of State Mark Martin who allowed all this to happen.
The basic argument goes like this: A stand-alone Christian monument violates both the state and U.S. constitutions, since they both prohibit government establishment of religion. And this is, no doubt, a Christian monument. Rapert said so multiple times, as did donors to his GoFundMe page. The Arkansas legislature was warned about the legal problems during public hearings… but they ignored the critics. Not only that, legal precedent is clear that these kinds of monuments are illegal. Even the Supreme Court has weighed in on this.
FFRF notes:
Earlier this year, a city in New Mexico was ordered to pay $700,000 in attorneys’ fees after unsuccessfully defending a Ten Commandments monument in court. FFRF has also prevailed in recent years in two cases that succeeded in removing Ten Commandments monuments from Pennsylvania schools.
“The state of Arkansas has no business telling citizens what religious practices and beliefs to engage in,” says FFRF Senior Counsel Patrick Elliott.“This Ten Commandments monument violates the rights of conscience of citizens.”
The AHA adds:
“This monument has been controversial from its inception, because it is a divisive display that favors certain religious beliefs over others,” said David Niose, American Humanist Association legal director. “Government should not be in the business of promoting particular religious views.”
“In these divisive times, the last thing we need is another government project intended to draw a wedge between Christians, the favored group, and everybody else,” said AHA executive director Roy Speckhardt. “Ten Commandments displays belong in churches, not on government property.”
Among the individual plaintiffs, one of them, Joan Dietz, is an active member of an Episcopal church and signed onto this lawsuit because “it appears to send the message that Christians feel superior to others, which is contrary to the teachings of her Christian faith.” Another Christian plaintiff, Gale Stewart, says she follows the “greatest” commandments listed in Mark 12:28-33. Those include “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The rest of the verse reads, “There is no commandment greater than these.”
Read the full story at the Friendly Atheist Blog
