Can a regular monument just listing down the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses in the Old Testament really be offensive? A man from Maryland claimed it can be. He recently changed his mind though.
The Ten Commandments monument outside a courthouse in the state of Maryland in the United States will not have to be demolished, after the man who questioned the structure, Jeffrey Davis, dropped the lawsuit.
Initially, Davis said he was offended by the monument, which was donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in 1957 and currently stands on the courthouse grounds in Allegany County, near a monument to George Washington. He did not provide an explanation as to why he chose to abandon his complaint.
Brett Harvey, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom and one of the lawyers which defended the Ten Commandments monument, was expectedly pleased by the outcome of the lawsuit.
"Mr. Davis was right to end his quest to uproot this monument, which is virtually identical to a monument in Texas that the U.S. Supreme Court already upheld," Harvey said, as quoted by The Catholic News Agency. "Because the county's monument would survive constitutional scrutiny, we are pleased that it will be able to stay."
The lawyer also still maintained that the structure does not violate the Establishment Clause, which prohibits Congress for making any law "respecting an establishment of religion." Before Davis abandoned his complaint, Harvey already filed a motion to dismiss it.
"The emotional response of an offended passerby doesn't automatically amount to a violation of the Establishment Clause," Harvey said.
This is not the first time that a Ten Commandments monument faced a legal challenge in the U.S. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that a similar structure on the grounds of the Texas Capitol, also donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles, need not be taken down since it does not run counter to the Establishment Clause.
