Secularist group demands removal of Santa Fe Ten Commandments monument from public grounds

A prominent secularist group is calling for the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from a Santa Fe city park in New Mexico, saying the display of the 6-foot-tall granite tablet on public grounds is unconstitutional and should be moved to a private property.

The monument along Cerrillos Road, in front of Santa Fe Fire Station 3, was donated by the New Mexico Fraternal Order of Eagles and has reportedly stood there since the 1960s.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) contended that the display should be given back to the Fraternal Order of Eagles or transferred to the grounds of a church.

The monument was reportedly placed in Ashbaugh Park by the Fraternal Order as an advertisement to Cecil B. DeMille's classic film "The Ten Commandments."

"This monolith in front of the city fire station is little more than one big unconstitutional advertisement," said FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor.

"The simplest solution, as many enlightened governmental bodies have found, is to have the monument removed. Give it back to the Eagles or a church to display," she added.

The FFRF is citing the 2016 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling which declared a similar Ten Commandments monument in another New Mexico city to be unconstitutional, forcing Bloomfield to pay over $700,000 in legal costs.

"The Supreme Court has said the Ten Commandments are not civil; they are sacred. They're not supposed to stand alone on public lawns. It's really an insult, I think, to walk past a city park and have the city telling you what God [you're] supposed to be worshiping," Gaylor said.

The city noted several months ago that it had not received any complaints about the monument. Some residents argued that the monument generally goes unnoticed and has been there for so long that it should not be moved. "I mean, it it's already there, (why) go ahead and move it?" Norman Archuleta said, according to KOB4.

The FFRF contended that the city should not be displaying anything that appears to endorse a religion, no matter how long the display in question has been there.

Residents who want the monument to remain in its current location have argued that the freedom of religion allows for it to stay there.

Mitch Schmitt noted that his grandfather was one of the Fraternal Order of Eagles members who helped bring the monument to the park and he does not want the display to come down anytime soon.

The secularist organization has not stated whether it will file a lawsuit against Santa Fe if the monument is not removed from the park.