Okla. Attorney General Argues For Ten Commandments Monument at Capitol Building

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has argued that a Ten Commandments monument remain on Capitol grounds despite a recent Supreme Court ruling demanding its removal.

"In defending the Ten Commandments display, my office argued the monument was lawfully permitted on Capitol grounds because of the historical significance of the text on the development of Western legal code," Pruitt said in a statement.

"Oklahoma Supreme Court held that no matter how historically significant or beneficial to the state, state law prohibits any item on state property or to be funded by the state if it's at all 'religious in nature," Pruitt continued.

"That declaration prohibits manifestations of faith from the public square in such a way as to create hostility toward religion in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Therefore, we are asking the district court to allow the state to amend its original answer so we may fully address this new concern," Pruitt added.

Dr. Bruce Prescott, a Southern Baptist minister and former member of Americans United's Board of Trustees who pursued the lawsuit to have the commandments removed, said in a recent statement that arguing the commandments don't carry a religious tone takes away from their importance.

"I'm not opposed to Ten Commandment monuments; I'm opposed to them on government property," he told The Washington Post. "How do you take a covenant between God and his people and make it a secular monument?"

"If you're say­ing that it's no longer religious, what have you done to religion? They've just completely destroyed the significance and value of the words," Prescott added.