ILLINOIS – Following Jefferson County’s removal of a large Ten Commandments monument from the lawn of the county courthouse, the plaintiffs have withdrawn a lawsuit challenging the display. Represented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU of Illinois and the ACLU, a group of religious and nonreligious Jefferson County, Illinois, residents filed suit last month in state court, alleging that the religious monument violated Illinois’s constitutional protections for the separation of church and state.
During a meeting in late June, immediately after the lawsuit was filed, members of the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners voted to remove the Ten Commandments monument from County property. Earlier this month, the monument was relocated to a more appropriate location, the West Salem Trinity Church in Mount Vernon. In yesterday’s Joint Motion to Dismiss, the county affirmed that “the monument will not return to county property.”
“We’re happy that the county eventually complied with Illinois’ church-state guarantees,” says Hirsh M. Joshi, Patrick O’Reiley Legal Fellow at the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “It was an honor to help my fellow Illinoisans keep their local government secular.”
“We’re delighted that after we sued, the county acted with alacrity to remove these biblical edicts from the seat of county government,” adds FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “This action shows that Jefferson County understands it has no right to tell residents which gods to worship, how many gods to worship or whether to worship any gods at all.”
Kevin Fee, Legal Director for the ACLU of Illinois, noted the role local residents played in the victory: “Our clients showed great courage in coming together and challenging this illegal action by their local elected officials. It is easy to be silent and not speak up. But these brave residents stood up for constitutional values and demanded change.”
Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, applauded the county’s decision: “This is a victory for religious freedom. Although county officials had no business prominently displaying biblical scripture at the seat of local government, we’re glad that they’ve now fixed their constitutional error.”