A Ten Commandments monument will remain on the lawn outside City Hall in Fargo, N.D., thanks to thousands of residents who said, "Enough is enough," when the City Commission recently voted to move it.
The 6-foot-tall granite monument was donated to the city in 1958 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles. It has been the most prominent feature of the lawn outside City Hall since 1961, USA Today reports.
In 2002, several residents filed a lawsuit demanding it be moved. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson ruled three years later that the monument has religious and secular connotations and concluded it doesn't suggest that the city endorses the religious message.
Last month, the City Commission voted to move the Commandments off city property. The vote set off a ruckus. Opponents of relocating the Commandments monument collected 5,265 signatures — far more than the 2,850 needed to force commissioners to either accept an ordinance stating that any monument in place for longer than 40 years can't be moved or be required to allow voters to decide the matter next year.
A few weeks later, one commissioner switched his vote, and the commission voted to keep the Ten Commandments monument where it is.
The possible eviction of the monument struck a nerve in the community, said Warren Ackley, a businessman who led the petition drive. "Common sense in the heartland prevailed," he told USA Today. "It's a pretty innocent marker. The commandments are good rules to live by."
