Apr 19, 2008 - 16:05:05 CDT
FARGO (AP) - Opponents of Fargo's Ten Commandments monument have filed a civil lawsuit against the city, asking that the granite marker be removed.The attorney for the Red River Freethinkers, Bruce Schoenwald, filed the complaint in federal court Friday. It accuses the city of "unconstitutional conduct."
The lawsuit contends the Freethinkers' rights were violated last year when Fargo refused to allow the group to put up its own monument near the Ten Commandments monument on city property.
The Freethinkers also are seeking unspecified damages and attorney fees.
The nonprofit group questions the role of religion in society. Its proposed monument would say in part that, "The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
The Ten Commandments monument was donated to the city by the Fraternal Order of Eagles on March 8, 1958, to commemorate an urban renewal project. It was installed on its current site near the Fargo Civic Auditorium in 1961.
No other monuments are in the same mall area.
The Freethinkers lost an earlier attempt to have the Ten Commandments monument removed. U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson ruled in September 2005 that the monument celebrates both religious and secular ideals and does not violate the Constitution.
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