Legislation has been filed which would return the granite Ten Commandments monument, given to the Commonwealth of Kentucky more than 50 years ago by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, to permanent display at Monument Park on the State Capitol grounds.
Republican State Representative Shane Baker of Somerset, the sponsor of House Joint Resolution 15 said, “The Ten Commandments have undeniable significance in the history and tradition of the Commonwealth of Kentucky and our nation. They are displayed prominently throughout our nation’s capital including the United States Supreme Court Building.”
In 1971, the Kentucky State Aerie of the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated to the Commonwealth of Kentucky a granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments. It remained on permanent display on the Capitol grounds until the 1980s, when it was moved to storage due to a construction project. In 2000, a joint resolution was signed into law that required it to be returned to the Capitol grounds for permanent display near the floral clock, which faced legal challenges.
In 2002, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a lawsuit styled Adland v. Russ affirmed a District Court order prohibiting the enforcement of the 2000 joint resolution, applying a test established by the United States Supreme Court in Lemon v. Kurtzman in 1971. As a result, the monument was returned to the Fraternal Order of Eagles and given to the care of the organization’s chapter in Hopkinsville.
However, in 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court in Van Orden v. Perry upheld the exhibition of an essentially identical Fraternal Order of Eagles’ Ten Commandments monument on permanent display on the state Capitol grounds in Austin, Texas. The Court held that Lemon was “not useful in dealing with the sort of passive monument that Texas has erected on its Capitol ground,” and instead focused on the “nature of the monument” and “our Nation’s history.”
Additionally, the legal precedent behind the decision to prohibit the enforcement of the 2000 joint legislative mandate to return the monument to the State Capitol grounds near the floral clock has since been abandoned by the U.S. Supreme Court and is no longer good law.
“The time is right to return the Ten Commandments monument to the State Capitol grounds in Frankfort,” added Baker.
