Judge orders Ten Commandments removed from Arkansas Capitol groundshttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-orders-ten-commandments-removed-from-arkansas-capitol-grounds/ar-AA1ZWF0X?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=caeda77afad94358d50437a72315206e&ei=38 🔗 [Link: msn.com/en-us/news/us/judge-orders-ten-commandments-removed-from-arkansas-capitol-grounds/ar-AA1ZWF0X/]Worth Sparkman (1 April 2025)
A federal judge ruled late Tuesday that Arkansas' Ten Commandments monument on state Capitol grounds violates the U.S. Constitution.
The decision comes just weeks after another federal judge permanently blocked the enforcement of an Arkansas law at six public schools that required them to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms if posters were donated.
U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ordered the monument removed from the Capitol grounds, but paused the order while Arkansas appeals.
Various individuals and groups filed a complaint in 2018 arguing that the display violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars laws "respecting an establishment of religion."
Baker wrote the monument "conveys a message that the Christian religion is favored" and is coercive.
Arkansas lawmakers approved the monument in 2015. The act required it to be privately funded.
It was first installed in 2017, but that version was destroyed within a day and a replacement went up in 2018.
Legal challenges followed and were later consolidated into a single case.
The decision distinguishes Arkansas' monument from a Texas display upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, noting that the monument stood for 40 years before being challenged.
