Oklahoma Ten Commandments bill wins final OK | NewsOK.com.
The Oklahoma Senate has given final approval to a bill to permit a Ten Commandments monument to be erected on the grounds of the state Capitol.
Ten Commandments on the Capitol grounds in Austin, Texas.
In a decision that lets stand the reversal of a lower court ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals’ 10th Circuit declined to rehear the June 8 decision of a three-judge panel of the court. That panel ruled that the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Haskell County Courthouse in Stigler breaches the U.S. Constitution because its primary effect is to endorse religion, thus violating the Establishment Clause.
Yesterday’s decision has no immediate impact on the state law authorizing placement of a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol. Primarily, this is because there is no monument in place at the Capitol. However, the plan is to obtain an old existing monument that is a replica of the monument at the Texas Capitol. That 6-foot monument was a gift to Texas from the Fraternal Order of Eagles, which donated thousands of the monuments to entities around the nation in the early 60’s with the support of Hollywood filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, who directed the 1956 Charlton Heston film “The Ten Commandments.”