Ten Commandments lawsuits merger OK’d

Two federal lawsuits filed May 23 opposing the recent resurrection of a Ten Commandments monument on the state Capitol grounds were merged into one Monday.

Attorneys on both sides of the two separate lawsuits had jointly asked to merge the cases into one because they involve common questions of law or fact, and combining them would save judicial resources. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker agreed in an order issued Monday evening.

A court consolidation rule requires the case with the lowest case number, indicating it was filed first, to become the lead case, so Baker merged both cases into the one in her court, known as Donna Cave et al v. Mark Martin, Arkansas Secretary of State. The other case, known as Anne Orsi et al v. Martin, was originally assigned to U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr.

The plaintiffs allege that the presence of the monument on the Capitol lawn violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment, constituting an illegal government endorsement of religion.

Donna Cave, Judith Lansky, Pat Piazza and Susan Russell are members of a walking and cycling club who say one of their regular routes takes them past the site where the monument sits between the Capitol building and the Justice Building, where they cannot avoid seeing the 6-foot-tall granite monolith that offends them. Cave is a retired teacher who is agnostic. Lanksy is a retired federal judicial law clerk who is Jewish and an atheist. Piazza, a retired social worker, is agnostic, and Russell, a state research associate, is agnostic.

They are backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas.