Oklahoma Judge Orders Ten Commandments Monument Removed Within 30 Days

An Oklahoma County judge has ordered that a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the state Capitol be removed within 30 days.

District Judge Thomas Prince handed down the order Friday and gave state officials until October 12 to take down the 6-foot-tall granite monument.

Prince issued the ruling after denying a motion filed by Attorney General Scott Pruitt's office alleging that the Oklahoma Supreme Court's June 30 order to remove the monument expressed an unconstitutional hostility toward religion.

The court ruled the monument is a religious symbol and must be removed from the Capitol grounds because it violates a state constitutional ban on using public property for the benefit of religion.

The monument was authorized by the Legislature in 2009 and was erected in 2012.

6/30/15 Related Story: OK Supreme Court: Ten Commandments Monument Must Be Removed From Capitol

Attorney General Scott Pruitt on Friday released the following statement after the conclusion of a status conference hearing in state district court on the Ten Commandments case:

“The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s stunningly broad interpretation of Article II, Section 5 of the Oklahoma Constitution created a hostility toward religion that violates the balance struck by the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of freedom of religion. The Legislature should give voters the opportunity to rectify this problem by allowing Oklahomans to vote on removing Article II, Section 5 from the Oklahoma Constitution. I fully support removal of this provision of the Oklahoma Constitution in order to reconcile the conflict – created by the state Supreme Court’s ruling – between the Oklahoma Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.”