Members of the Jefferson County, Ill., Board of Commissioners voted 7-2 to remove a newly installed Ten Commandments monument from the courthouse rather than face a lawsuit.
The saga began in August of 2024, after Jeff Bullard, the county sheriff, announced plans to erect the Decalogue inside the courthouse. The monument, more than six feet tall, listed the Ten Commandments from the King James Version of the Bible and included another Bible verse at the bottom.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) wrote to the county board to let them know that the display was problematic, but the board didn’t respond — although Bullard, after consulting with a Christian Nationalist legal group, moved the monument outside to the courthouse lawn and covered up the Bible verse.
Subsequently, FFRF and the national and Illinois branches of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued in a state court over the matter on behalf of local residents, among them a Christian pastor who argued that county officials had trivialized the Ten Commandments by using them for decoration.
Hemant Mehta of the “Friendly Atheist” blog reported that while Bullard acted unilaterally, the Board of Commissioners did nothing to stop him. In fact, the county’s attorney, Sean Featherstun, advised the board that the monument would likely spark legal action.
While board members were at first defiant about the lawsuit, they apparently changed their mind after hearing from the county’s insurance company, which said it would not honor a claim if the county was successfully sued over the display.
The monument was subsequently moved to West Salem Trinity Church, with private funds used for the relocation.
Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said the county made the right call.
“This is a victory for religious freedom,” Mach said. “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.”