The Freedom From Religion Foundation is among a bevy of plaintiffs asking a federal court for summary judgment to remove a Ten Commandments monument displayed on the Arkansas Capitol grounds. When the Arkansas General Assembly passed Act 1231 of 2015, it created a cascading legal controversy caused by a quintessentially religious subject — the Ten Commandments. FFRF filed a lawsuit in 2018, within one month of the installation of a massive Ten Commandments exhibit on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds. The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, seeks a declaration that the monument is unconstitutional and an injunction directing the state to remove the monument . Despite widespread objections, the state went forward with the installation of the monument, which has brought nothing but religious division. The Ten Commandments are undeniably religious in nature, FFRF’s brief notes. The public presentation of the monument also shows the understanding that the monument was religious in nature. A monument containing the wording prescribed by the General Assembly was proposed by the American History & Heritage Foundation, a dummy organization created by former State Sen. Jason Rapert, the primary sponsor of the Ten Commandments […]
