Ten Commandments Not Part of Our History
This is galling. There is no doubt that the Ten Commandments have been foundational for Western law and jurisprudence. J. Harold Berman is a legal scholar of the last generation who spent his life writing on related topics and training protégés who are still carrying out his legacy. This is mainstream legal history. Why then can Oklahoma’s highest court deny the obvious? – Al Kresta
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The Ten Commandments monument at Oklahoma’s state Capitol must be taken down because it benefits Christian and Jewish faiths, the state Supreme Court ruled.
Oklahoma’s highest court said the Ten Commandments chiseled into the 6-foot-tall granite monument, which was privately funded by a Republican legislator, are “obviously religious in nature and are an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.”
The 7-2 ruling overturns a decision by a district court judge who determined the monument could stay.
Attorney General Scott Pruitt had argued that the monument was historical in nature and nearly identical to a Texas monument that was found constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Oklahoma justices said the local monument violated the state’s constitution, not the U.S. Constitution.
“Quite simply, the Oklahoma Supreme Court got it wrong,” Pruitt said in a statement. “The court completely ignored the profound historical impact of the Ten Commandments on the foundation of Western law.”
Pruitt said his office would ask the court for a rehearing and request that the monument be allowed to stay until the court considers his request.
Since the original monument was erected in 2012, several other groups have asked to put up their own monuments on the Capitol grounds. Among them is a group that wants to erect a 7-foot-tall statue that depicts Satan as Baphomet, a goat-headed figure with horns, wings and a long beard.
A Hindu leader in Nevada, an animal rights group, and the satirical Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster also have made requests.
Rep. Mike Ritze, a Republican from Broken Arrow whose family paid about $10,000 for the monument’s construction, pushed the bill authorizing the monument. He said Tuesday he hoped the attorney general would appeal the ruling.
The original monument was smashed into pieces in October, when someone drove a car across the Capitol lawn and crashed into it. A 29-year-old man who was arrested the next day was admitted to a hospital for mental health treatment, and formal charges were never filed.
A new monument was built and put up again in January.
