Federal
judge rules Ten Commandments monument in front of Bloomfield City Hall violates
First Amendment
By James Fenton The
Daily Times
08/09/2014 12:50:38 AM MDT
Judge rules Ten Commandments monument must go
BLOOMFIELD — A federal judge on Thursday issued a ruling
against the city of Bloomfield for placing a Ten Commandments monument on the
front lawn of its City Hall and ordered that it be removed by Sept. 10.
In his 32-page opinion, Senior U.S. District
Judge James A. Parker wrote that the monument constitutes government speech and
is regulated by the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, which prevents the
government from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”
“In view of the circumstances surrounding the context,
history, and purpose of the Ten Commandments monument, it is clear that the
City of Bloomfield has violated the Establishment Clause because its conduct in
authorizing the continued display of the monument on City property has had the
primary or principal effect of endorsing religion,” Parker
wrote.
The ruling is a victory for two Bloomfield residents, Jane
Felix and Buford Coone, who believe the monument violates their religious
freedom.
Felix and Coone said in court records that the monument
sends a message the city endorses a particular religious belief. The text of
the Ten Commandments monument is taken from the King James Version of the
Bible.
Eckstein said the next step for the city will be to sit
down with the city council and determine “where the council wants to go with
this.”
Bloomfield City Attorney Ryan Lane shared the mayor's
surprise over the decision.
In 2012, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico
filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of Felix and Coone, who practice
Wicca and are members of a Bloomfield Wiccan organization, the Order of the
Cauldron of the Sage.
Felix and Coone could not be reached for comment on
Thursday.
Peter Simonson, ACLU of New Mexico's executive director,
praised the ruling, calling it “a victory for the First Amendment's
protections against government endorsed religion.”
“We firmly support the right of individuals, religious
groups and community associations to publicly display religious monuments, but
the government should not be in the business of picking which sets of religious
beliefs belong at city hall,” Simonson wrote in an email to
The Daily Times on Thursday. “We hope that the Ten Commandments monument
will find a new home on private property in the city where people can continue
to enjoy it.”
Mauzy is also the founder of the Four Corners Historical
Monument Project, a group of citizens who raised $3,940 to install the
monument. He proposed the installation of monuments on the City Hall lawn in
2007, and city councilors unanimously passed an ordinance allowing monuments to
be placed on city property.
Mauzy has said the monument project was part of his pledge
when he ran for city council to beautify the city and to promote U.S. history.
But the judge dismissed the “open forum” disclaimer, saying
“Mauzy, the only citizen to erect or propose a monument under the Bloomfield
forum policy, presented the City Council with a comprehensive plan for the City
Hall Lawn, which the city has step-by-step approved. ... Because the City Hall
Lawn embodies the fulfillment of Mr. Mauzy's plan, the City has, in effect,
created not a public forum for all citizens, but a platform for Mr. Mauzy
alone.”
The Ten Commandments monument, which also displays the
Great Seal of the United States, was the first of four monuments Mauzy and his
group installed on the City Hall lawn. He also erected granite tributes to the
Declaration of Independence, President Abraham Lincoln's “Gettysburg Address”
and, last month, a pair of tablets inscribed with the Bill of Rights, the
pledge of allegiance and a depiction of the Liberty Bell.
