Group's standing asserted in case against Fargo's Ten Commandments monument

May 30, 2012

United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit: On Friday, the Eighth Circuit Appeals Court released an opinion granting the right of a local Freethinkers group to sue the City of Fargo. The Red River Freethinkers are challenging the city to remove its privately donated Ten Commandments monument, alleging that its inclusion on city property violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment which injures the group members.

The decision released last week is latest step in a ten year battle between the group and the city. After the monument's erection in 2002, the Freethinkers, a nonprofit group that promotes agnostic and atheistic views, were found to lack standing to sue by the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota.

Since that decision, the group offered to donate a monument to the city to be displayed next to the Ten Commandments monument. It was to have said:

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IS NOT, IN ANY SENSE FOUNDED ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

FROM THE TREATY OF TRIPOLI, APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY BY THE UNITED STATES SENATE, JUNE 7, 1797. SIGNED BY PRESIDENT JOHN ADAMS

PRESENTED TO THE CITY OF FARGO BY THE RED RIVER FREETHINKERS IN RECOGNITION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT OF EVERY AMERICAN TO BELIEVE, OR NOT BELIEVE, IN ANY GOD

In response, the city commission considered four proposals: maintain the status quo; remove the Ten Commandments monument to private grounds; display both monuments alongside one another; or create a committee to encourage diversity of freedom displays. Though the city opted to remove the monument and relocate it, citizens in the town circulated an ordinance to prevent this. The city adopted the ordinance.

The argument for standing from the Freethinkers came from these actions. The Appeals Court accepts The City "displays a Ten Commandments monument; it has enacted an ordinance prohibiting the removal of that monument; no other monument is so protected; and the City has a policy of not accepting other monuments in the mall where the Ten Commandments monument stands. Put together, Freethinkers argues, these facts result in an Establishment Clause violation."

In accepting the plea for standing, the appellate court has remanded the case back to the District Court.

Information presented is from: United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, Red River Freethinkers v. City of Fargo, May 25, 2012.