Ten Commandments assigned Capitol spot
Official: Monument set to go up in June
A 6-foot-tall stone monument etched with the Ten Commandments is ready to be placed on the state Capitol grounds in early June, a state official said Thursday.
The monument, which in accordance with a 2015 state law must be placed somewhere on the grounds, has been the subject of two years of debate regarding the appropriateness of putting religious symbols on the state’s most recognizable public property.
Critics have promised lawsuits and have called for their own Capitol grounds monuments, most notably a statue of Baphomet, a satanic winged-goat deity.
However, there was no dissension Thursday when the Capitol Arts and Grounds Commission concluded its consideration of the Ten Commandments monument and approved installing it near a walkway that leads to the Justice Building.
The meeting was little more than a formality — the only action the commission could have taken was to recommend a different spot for the monument. There was During Thursday’s meeting
no public comment at the meeting.
A subcommittee of the commission heard Arkansans speak for and against the monument proposal at a meeting in December. A spokesman for the secretary of state’s office said about 700 comments have been called in and 600 letters have been mailed to the office regarding the monument.
In an interview later Thursday, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas repeated promises to sue the state if the Ten Commandments monument is put up.
But Kelly Boyd, chief deputy secretary of state, said the commission’s action cleared the way for installation to move forward. The only circumstance likely to cause further delay would be rain, he said.
Construction of the monument was funded by the American Heritage and History Foundation, which also will pay for laying the foundation and installing the 6,000-pound monument, Boyd said. The monument is currently in storage.
The commission still has to determine the total cost of building the foundation and installing the monument, and then will charge the monument supporters an additional 10 percent to go into an existing maintenance fund for Capitol monuments.
Travis Story, the general counsel for the foundation, said the group already has factored in the maintenance fee for the monument and has raised the money to pay for it.
“We’ll pray for good weather and get it up as soon as we can,” Story said.
Holly Dickson, the lawyer for the ACLU, said installing the monument would be a violation of constitutionally protected religious liberties.
“When they filed the bill, we told them it’s bad policy and violates the Constitution and they shouldn’t do it,” Dickson said. “Everything old is still new.”
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
Supporters of the Ten Commandments monument said they’re confident that they will prevail in any lawsuit in the matter. The monument is a nearly exact replica of one placed on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. The Texas monument survived a challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In that 2005 case, Van Orden v. Perry, a 5-4 ruling of the high court determined that the monument could stay because of its historic and social meaning.
The legislative sponsor of the Arkansas law requiring that the monument be erected, Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Bigelow, noted to reporters at the Capitol on Thursday that the U.S. Supreme Court has its own depictions of the Ten Commandments adorning its building, completed in 1935.
“I see it no more of an endorsement of religion than the U.S. Supreme Court,” Rapert said.
The law Rapert sponsored, Act 1231 of 2015, requires that the commission permit a Ten Commandments monument somewhere on the Capitol grounds.
In response, applications were submitted to the commission to consider the Baphomet statue, as well as a brick wall to obscure both monuments, which was sponsored by the Saline Atheist & Skeptic Society.
This spring the Legislature passed another law, Act 274, that slammed the brakes on both of the rival proposals. The law requires that the General Assembly approve any monuments before they can be considered by the commission.
Only the Ten Commandments monument met the new requirement, and no legislators came forward to sponsor the other proposed religious monuments.
The Legislature this year did approve a monument honoring families whose loved ones died in war. On Thursday, the commission also received an update on that proposal — the Gold Star Family Monument.
Boyd said that while that monument has tentatively been assigned a location on the west side of the Capitol, it is unlikely to be ready this year because its sponsoring group is still raising money to pay for it.
The secretary of state’s office also is preparing to spend more than $10,000 on repairs to three monuments already installed on the Capitol grounds. The biggest and most expensive project, Boyd said, will be repairing the base of the monument to the Little Rock Nine at the north entrance to the Capitol. The monument commemorates the nine black students who integrated Central High School in Little Rock in 1957.