Gov. Mike Braun and Attorney General Todd Rokita want a federal judge to lift a decades-old ban on the placement of a Ten Commandments monument at the Indiana Statehouse grounds.
A motion filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on Tuesday argues that the original legal standard used to block the monument has since been overturned by Supreme Court decisions and that existing law now allows historical displays with religious content.
The case has reemerged amid separate legislative and judicial battles over Ten Commandments displays in other states.
In contention now is an 11,500-pound limestone monument that was donated by the Indiana Limestone Institute in 1996. Then-Indiana Republican Rep. Brent Steele arranged for the donation and placement of the monument, which was intended to be installed near the site of the former Ten Commandments display on the Statehouse lawn, according to court filings.
The attorney general described the top portion of the monument as consisting of a 4-foot, 4-inch tall block of limestone that sits atop a larger rectangular base that is also made of limestone. The Ten Commandments are inscribed on one side of the block and the Bill of Rights are etched on the opposite side.
Smaller sides of the monument contain the preamble to the 1851 Indiana Constitution, as well as a dedication showing the monument was a gift from the limestone institute.
A yearslong battle
A similar Ten Commandments display donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles previously stood on the Statehouse lawn for more than three decades before it was vandalized and removed in 1991.
In 2000, then-Gov. Frank O’Bannon accepted the replacement monument, but the Indiana Civil Liberties Union sued, claiming the monument’s placement on state property would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction later in 2000, concluding that the state’s purpose for erecting the monument was religious, not secular, and that a “reasonable person would … regard it as an explicit endorsement of the Ten Commandments.”
The preliminary injunction was later affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and has remained in effect ever since.
In their latest motion, however, Indiana officials contend the original injunction “rests upon legal principles that can no longer be sustained” because the Supreme Court has “discarded the Lemon test” — the 1971 standard that until 2022 guided Establishment Clause analysis.
Rokita additionally said in a news release that the Statehouse grounds “feature many monuments and markers celebrating Indiana’s and America’s heritage.”
“This monument belongs among them as a reminder of core principles that have guided our nation,” he continued. “After all these years, it’s time to place this historical recognition where Hoosiers and visitors can appreciate its significance in our common story.”
In the same release, Braun added that the monument “reflects foundational texts that have shaped our Nation’s laws, liberties, and civic life for generations.”
“Restoring this historical monument,” the governor said, “is about honoring our heritage and who we are as Hoosiers.”
Rokita further argued in court filings that the state should be able to erect the monument because subsequent U.S. Supreme Court rulings evaluate religious displays based on historical practices rather than the old Lemon standard used.
The Republican attorney general pointed to the 2005 Van Orden v. Perry case, for example, in which the high court justices allowed a Ten Commandments monument to remain on the Texas State Capitol grounds as part of a broader historical setting.
Opposition — and pending legislation
Civil liberties groups have long been opposed to such a display on state grounds, though.
In similar disputes, courts across the country have blocked laws requiring Ten Commandments displays in public schools. A federal appeals court ruled in June that a Louisiana law requiring posters of the Ten Commandments in every classroom was unconstitutional under longstanding First Amendment precedent.
And in Texas, a federal judge’s November order forced several school districts to remove classroom posters of the Ten Commandments and concluded that a state law mandating such displays violated the Establishment Clause.
Still, the fight over religious texts in public spaces isn’t limited to the Statehouse lawn.
A new bill pending in the Indiana legislature, authored by Rep. Michelle Davis, R-Whiteland, seeks to “require each school corporation to place a durable poster or framed picture representing the text of the Ten Commandments in each school library and classroom.”
Davis’ House Bill 1086 has been assigned to the House Education Committee, but it’s not clear whether it will receive a hearing. Similar legislative attempts in the Hoosier legislature have been unsuccessful.
If the federal judge grants Indiana’s motion, the monument could be placed near its originally intended location on the Statehouse grounds. The plaintiffs — which include the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana — have 14 days to file a response.