Now that the Ten Commandments have been moved to their new home, this seems like a propitious time to document the entire tale, from start to finish. What follows here is a brief and relatively concise timeline of the major events in the evolution of this bizarre and cautionary tale.
06 Jan 2009 – Rep. Mike Ritze introduces HB 1330, “Ten Commandments Monument Display Act” in an effort to bring a new monument to the State Capitol. It later passes the House and Senate with large bipartisan majorities.
11 May 2009 – Americans United of Oklahoma implores Governor Brad Henry to veto the bill, providing a list of ten reasons to reject it. Among these are “the eventuality of a lawsuit which the State of Oklahoma will most probably lose.” (Not really a milestone, but hey, we told you so.)
18 May 2009 – Governor Henry signs HB 1330 into law, evidently fearing a veto override.
01 Nov 2009 – Ten Commandments Monument Display Act (O.S. § 74-4110) takes effect.
15 Nov 2012 – Ten Commandments monument erected upon the north steps of the State Capitol.
19 Aug 2013 – ACLU files suit in state court. [PDF]
(Chas and I interviewed the lead plaintiff in this case for the Oklahoma Atheists Godcast.)
13 Jan 2014 – American Atheists file suit in federal court. [PDF]
(Brief post explaining and comparing these two different legal approaches here.)
23 Oct 2014 – Michael Reed crashes his car into the monument. (Adding blasphemy to injury, he also claims to have urinated thereupon.) Unsurprisingly, Reed is revealed to have a history of mental illness. Somewhat more surprisingly, he self-identifies as a born again Christian and maintains that the devil made him do it. Literally.
(This event had no legal effect, but in practice it meant that the Capitol was missing a monument for a few months.)
08 Jan 2015 – A new monument is installed to replace the one destroyed by Satan’s aforementioned minion.
10 Mar 2015 – American Atheists lawsuit dismissed on standing grounds. (The plaintiff took this fairly personally, but it really wasn’t her fault.)
30 Jun 2015 – ACLU prevails in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The opinion published is per curiam, terse and straightforward.
07 Jul 2015 – Governor Mary Fallin makes stubborn noises about having to answer to a separate branch of government, refuses to budge. She instructs the AG to try again, just in case the court wasn’t serious the first time.
14 Jul 2015 – Attorney General Scott Pruitt files for rehearing, arguing that “the Ten Commandments…have an undeniable secular purpose.” (I deny this.)
27 Jul 2015 – Oklahoma Supreme Court smacks down AG Pruitt, this time with a devastating barrage of substantive arguments. [Source]
28 Aug 2015 – Oklahoma Interfaith Alliance and a coalition of other groups implore Governor Fallin to remove the monument.
11 Sep 2015 – Oklahoma District Judge Thomas Prince orders the monument removed within 30 days.
06 Oct 2015 – The monument is finally relocated to private property, up the street, on loan. GOP lawmakers promise to bring it back as soon as legislatively possible, after repealing a century old constitutional provision which provides for strict separation of church purposes and state property.
This timeline will be updated periodically. Please let me know in the comments if I left off something which perhaps ought to be included.
