A ruling says a Ten Commandments statue on the Arkansas State Capitol grounds is unconstitutional.
Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a 148-page ruling calling the monument “discriminatory.” She says the monument violates the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment which says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
It was erected in 2017. The result of “The Ten Commandments Monument Display Act," a law passed by then-Sen. Jason Rapert and current state Sen. Kim Hammer.
The statue has been controversial since it was built. When it was about 24 hours old, 32-year-old Michael Tate Reed drove his car into the monument yelling “freedom.” Reed was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Once rebuilt, an unlikely band of plaintiffs sued to legally take it down, including a United Methodist preacher, a Rabbi, a Wiccan, the Satanic Temple and special interests groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
“On behalf of all the plaintiffs we represent, I was elated to have the outcome we all expected here,” said San Grover of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “It was a long time coming, but frankly the wheels of justice turn slowly sometimes.”
Anne Orsi, an Agnostic Atheist plaintiff, said she also expected a ruling in their favor.
“The law is firmly on our side,” she said. “The facts are firmly on our side.”
Orsi is part of a group called The Society of Free Thinkers, which supports the separation of church and state.
“I oppose the monument because it tells people what to believe,” she said. “Not everyone believes in god.”
The statue garnered national attention after The Satanic Temple asked to put their statue of Baphomet on the capitol grounds as well. Baphomet is a goat-headed symbol often associated with the occult.
Lucien Greaves represented The Satanic Temple in public arguments.
“We think that our monument represents what makes America great,” he said to the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission almost a decade ago. “And in our case we believe that's religious liberty.”
At the time, Greaves was insistent that The Satanic Temple would only push for the monument if the Ten Commandments monument was also put on the capitol grounds. In an interview with Little Rock Public Radio Wednesday, Greaves seemed less sure, saying the group still needed to discuss “next steps.”
The arguments made in court on behalf of The Satanic Temple focused on religious pluralism.
“So many people like to focus on this idea that it's Satanist versus Christians,” Greaves said, but he says the group often shared a podium with religious Christians who supported the Establishment Clause.
For years, Satanists sparred with Rapert over the monument.
“The more one could get him to speak, the further he dug the hole,” Greaves said.
Judge Baker spent pages of the ruling quoting Rapert directly, framing his comments on the Ten Commandments monument and the Baphomet statue as a confession.
Baker points to an editorial Rapert wrote in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Twitter posts referring to the monument as “a clear record of our Judeo-Christian history” and videos on his official Facebook account.
“The Court determines that passage of the Display Act to commemorate the Ten Commandments favored Christianity and that Act 274 adversely affected TST,” Baker wrote of The Satanic Temple.
Greaves said Rapert “rose to the bait.”
Rapert did not return Little Rock Public Radio's request for comment, but posted a video to Facebook standing in front of the granite statue.
“We are going to defend this monument,” he said. “For us here in the United States [The Ten Commandments] is a historic symbol honoring the historical and moral foundation of law.”
He correctly pointed out that there are references to Moses at the U.S. Supreme Court building. The Supreme Court also makes references to Confucius, along with medieval, Greek and Roman figures.
He thought the ruling was timed to coincide with Holy Week.
In a statement, Secretary of State Cole Jester said the Ten Commandments “are foundational to Western civilization and the history of law in Arkansas.” He says they will keep fighting for the monument in court. The statue will stay up while the ruling waits for an appeal.
