Judge: Remove Ten Commandments from Arkansas Capitol grounds

State of play: U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker ordered the monument removed from the Capitol grounds, but paused the order while Arkansas appeals.

• Various individuals and groups filed a complaint in 2018 arguing that the display violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which bars laws "respecting an establishment of religion."
• Baker wrote the monument "conveys a message that the Christian religion is favored" and is coercive.

Flashback: Arkansas lawmakers approved the monument in 2015. The act required it to be privately funded.

• It was first installed in 2017, but that version was destroyed within a day and a replacement went up in 2018.
• Legal challenges followed and were later consolidated into a single case.

Zoom out: The decision distinguishes Arkansas' monument from a Texas display upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, noting that the monument stood for 40 years before being challenged.

• The court also ruled that Ten Commandments displays in two Kentucky courthouses were unconstitutional violations of the Establishment Clause that same year.