ICC Note: During an appeals hearing, a New Mexico court of appeals upheld the order to get rid of a Ten Commandments monument on the property of a city hall. The monument was created in 2011 and, although it received approval from the city council, it was funded entirely by private citizens. However, after the ACLU took notice of the matter and filed a lawsuit, the monument was deemed unconstitutional as it allegedly served as a government endorsement of Christianity. In a similar case, a Ten Commandments monument was recently removed from Oklahoma state capitol grounds.

By Heather Clark

11/10/2016 United States (Christian News Network) – The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the lawn of Bloomfield City Hall in New Mexico, declaring the display to be an unconstitutional endorsement of Christianity.

“Bloomfield has not undertaken sufficiently purposeful, public, and persuasive actions to secularize the Monument’s previous ‘principal or primary’ religious message,” it wrote on Wednesday. “The City has never explicitly said this Monument was not for religious purposes, nor that it was exhibited only for its historical significance.”

As previously reported, the monument at issue had been erected in 2011 following a resolution allowing private citizens to place historical displays at Bloomfield City Hall. A former city council member had proposed the monument four years prior, which was then approved by city council but paid for with private money.

“Presented to the people of San Juan County by private citizens recognizing the significance of these laws on our nation’s history,” the monument read, which was unveiled during a special ceremony on Independence Day 2011.

But Wiccans Jane Felix and Buford Coone of the Order of the Cauldron of the Sage felt offended by the monument and contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for assistance.

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