Court Orders Removal of Ten Commandments

Our federal judiciary is now so stacked with liberal appointees that multiple federal courts have ordered the removal of a small Ten Commandments monument from the lawn of a New Mexico city hall. The town of Bloomfield has been displaying the Ten Commandments alongside the U.S. Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and the Bill of Rights, but a lawsuit by the ACLU is forcing the removal of only the Ten Commandments monument.

The small town even posted a disclaimer to negate any perception that it was improperly proselytizing, but that was not good enough for the ACLU crowd. “The City has intentionally opened up the lawn around City Hall as a public forum where local citizens can display monuments that reflect the City’s history of law and government,” the sign read. “Any message contained on a monument does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the City, but are statements from private citizens,” the disclaimer continued. An appellate court admitted that this “dampens” the religious message of the monument, but demanded its removal anyway.

The three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit unanimously ruled that “we find an impermissible effect of endorsement” and that the disclaimer was “insufficient.” They ordered the town to uproot the Ten Commandments from its display among the half-dozen historic documents. The town petitioned for a rehearing, but only two out of the twelve active judges on the Tenth Circuit sided with the Ten Commandments, and the petition for rehearing was denied.

The two judges in favor of allowing the Ten Commandments to remain explained that the court’s decision “continues the error of our Establishment Clause cases. It does not align with the historical understanding of an ‘establishment of religion’ and thus with what the First Amendment actually prohibits.” These two conservative judges, Paul Kelly and Timothy Tymkovich, cited the U.S. Supreme Court precedent that allows the Texas State Capitol to display the Ten Commandments on its grounds, a plaque that remains to this day.

President Obama placed five judges on the Tenth Circuit, and along with President Clinton’s two appointments and additional liberal Republican nominees they have a solid leftist majority that could unfortunately remain in power there for a long time.