'Come and take it': Texas county rebuffs FFRF's demands to remove Ten Commandments from courthouse

Attorneys for a Texas county panel have rejected calls from a secular group to remove a newly installed Ten Commandments monument.

Last month, the Rockwall County Commissioners Court unveiled a Ten Commandments monument outside the county’s historic courthouse, where state and local lawmakers were joined by local pastors to dedicate the monument.

On May 27, the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist legal organization, sent a letter to Rockwall County to complain about the public ceremony's use of “Christian prayers and speeches from religious and political figures,” and argued the ceremony was a government endorsement of religion.

In the letter, FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line emphasized the monument’s use of the King James Bible translation and argued it “prominently displays explicitly religious commandments, including directives to worship the biblical god exclusively, avoid ‘graven images’ and observe the Sabbath.”

“Far from serving a neutral historical purpose, the monument’s approval, presentation and unveiling demonstrate a coordinated governmental effort to promote a particular religious viewpoint,” wrote Line.

Claiming that the Ten Commandments monument, which was donated by the American History & Heritage Foundation, violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, Line’s letter called for the monument’s immediate removal.

In his letter, Line argued that the First Commandment by itself was a violation of the U.S. Constitution. “The First Commandment alone makes it obvious why the Ten Commandments should not be posted on government property. The government has no business telling residents which god they must have, how many gods they must have, or that they must have any god at all.”

In a June 10 response letter, religious freedom advocacy group First Liberty Institute stated that the county will not remove the display and noted that the monument was virtually identical to the one upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court at the Texas state Capitol.

First Liberty Institute Associate Counsel William G. Bell took aim specifically at FFRF’s assertion that any claim about the influence of the Ten Commandments — also known as the Decalogue — on the U.S. legal system is “historically flawed.”

“The Supreme Court disagrees,” Bell wrote. “For believing Jews and Christians, the Ten Commandments are the word of God handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai, but the image of the Ten Commandments has also been used to convey other meanings. They have historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system, and for largely that reason, they are depicted in the marble frieze in our courtroom and in other prominent public buildings in our Nation’s capital.”

Quoting several of America’s Founders, including Benjamin Franklin and John Quincy Adams, Bell also noted the Supreme Court’s ruling in Van Orden v. Perry, which upheld a similar monument on the Texas Capitol grounds and was one of what Bell said were many such “acknowledgements of the role played by the Ten Commandments in our Nation’s heritage [that] are common throughout America.”

Bell concluded the letter with a defiant challenge. “If the FFRF and similar organizations wish to see these Ten Commandments removed, we echo the words of our Texas Forefathers to Col. Ugartechea in 1835. Come and Take It.”

The legal challenge is the latest such move linked to the implementation of Senate Bill 10, which requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom. 

In April, a federal appeals court upheld SB 10 in a 9-8 decision that has since energized supporters in other states to launch similar legislative efforts even as legal challenges are underway in Louisiana, Arkansas and Alabama.