Thou shalt not ignore the law: Illinois county sued over Ten Commandments monument
Jefferson County defied legal warnings to install a massive Christian display—now the ACLU and FFRF are taking them to court
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A coalition of church/state separation groups just sued an Illinois county for installing a massive Ten Commandments monument at the local courthouse. County officials had plenty of opportunities to reverse course but refused to do so. Now, given the amount of evidence revealing just how many times the people involved ignored the law, it’s hard to imagine any outcome that will allow this monument to stay in place.
Just wait till you hear the details.
Last August, the Jefferson County Courthouse in central Illinois installed the monument right inside the front entrance. It was over six feet tall, mostly granite, and included at its base a biblical quotation from Proverbs 21:15: “When justice is done, it is a joy to the righteous but terror to the evildoers.”
There were a lot of glaring problems with the monument. For example, why reference the Bible chapter that also includes, just a few verses later, “Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and nagging wife”? And why use that simplified form of the list, given that the KJV version of the Ten Commandments are actually very specific about what you’re not supposed to covet, like cattle and your neighbor’s wife? And what’s with the bizarre spacing between commandments—why is there a huge gap between Commandments 4 and 5 and Commandments 8 and 9? (As a reader points out, it’s to align them horizontally in pairs, but STILL.)
More importantly, why put it up at all? It’s not like this monument went up decades earlier and people just noticed it now. It was brand new, completely unnecessary, and blatantly illegal. You cannot have a stand-alone Christian monument on government property, much less one that promotes one particular version of the religion.
No recent Supreme Court ruling has ever overturned the 2005 decisions regarding these kinds of monuments in government spaces. One, involving a display at the Texas Capitol, said such monuments were legal as part of a larger secular context. The other, involving a Kentucky courthouse, said stand-alone Ten Commandments displays were illegal.
This situation is virtually identical to that latter case.
Speaking with a local newpaper, Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard explained that he was allowed to erect this monument because of the SCOTUS ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton… the case about the showboating high school football coach who demanded the right to pray at midfield after games. But nothing about that case seemed to apply here.
That decision established that the Lemon Test—which helped judges determine if a law violated church/state separation—was essentially dead… but why would that matter in this situation? The Supreme Court also said the coach’s demand to pray had everything to do with his private rights as a citizen, which is why it didn’t count as a government promotion of religion. This monument, however, was obviously about government promotion of religion.
In a letter to the county board at the time, in addition to making all those points, Freedom From Religion Foundation legal fellow Hirsh M. Joshi pointed out that this monument was brand new, which knocked out the only plausible defense for keeping it there.
… the monument is not part of Jefferson County’s longstanding history, because the monument was erected less than a week ago. This does not come close to the so-called “history and tradition test” which was discussed in Kennedy. Even within a historical framework, there is no historic authority providing that the Establishment Clause permits a county government to adopt and give preference to particular religious commandments.
Making matters worse for the county, the sheriff never publicized or announced the installation of the monument in advance. Much like Christian predator Roy Moore did in Alabama in 2001, Bullard just had it erected without telling anyone but his closest allies he was doing it—or who was paying for it.
It was only after it was installed that we learned those details:
… in March of 2024, a group of several interested Jefferson County churches and private individuals came forward to provide the financial support needed to have the monument placed at the local courthouse, Bullard said.
“The project was completed and delivered by Pyramid Marble and Granite out of Effingham, Illinois,” Bullard said. “They, along with Daniel Heck of Rick’s Towing, did an outstanding job of creating and installing it, which took place Friday morning, Aug. 23.”
A private ceremony unveiling the new monument took place on Sunday, Aug. 25. During the ceremony, all of the donors were thanked for their contributions.
“I thank everyone who supported and encouraged this project to restore a piece of our heritage and history in Jefferson County,” Bullard said.
The monument had nothing to do with the county’s heritage or history. And as many critics of similar monuments have noted, the display sends a very clear message that the Christian book of rules—and a very specific brand of Christianity at that—overrides the Constitution and state laws. The implication is that non-Christians will not receive a fair shake in the county courthouse because they don’t follow those rules. (Most of the Commandments, of course, are completely detached from secular law. The government should not care if you don’t keep the Sabbath day holy or don’t respect your parents.)
This was nothing more than a symbol of religious intolerance and exclusion.
In any case, the County never responded to FFRF’s letter.
In the months to follow, Bullard must have spoken to lawyers who told him this was a bad idea… so he made a few changes. He covered up the Bible verse at the base of the monument and moved the whole thing outside to the courthouse lawn.
That obviously didn’t fix the main problem because… it’s still the Ten Commandments on courthouse property.
That’s why FFRF, the ACLU of Illinois, and the ACLU (national) have now sued the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners. In their filing with a state circuit court, they include several details that are extremely damning for Bullard and the Commissioners who didn’t stop him.
For example, the lawsuit says Bullard “used official government resources, channels, and personnel to promote, finance, and install the Monument.”
For example, Bullard circulated a “Donation Pledge Form” to several potential donors, which stated that solicited donations “go to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Ten Commandments project for 2024.”
Sheriff Bullard directed donors to make checks out to the “JCSO Chaplaincy Division,” to be deposited into the government account for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office’s Chaplaincy Division, and to mail the checks directly to the Sheriff’s Office. He instructed donors to drop off physical checks at the Sheriff’s Office.
He raised over $10,000 that way, covering the total cost of the monument. Some of the cash ($1,000) came directly from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Chaplains.
Another problem: When Bullard spoke with the companies constructing the monument, he didn’t do it in a private capacity, instead signing his messages as “sheriff.”
The people who gave money knew exactly why they were doing this—and it sure as hell wasn’t for any secular reason.
For example, in a letter to Sheriff Bullard accompanying a $500 donation, one church wrote: “We are thankful to have a sheriff who not only has Biblical beliefs but is also willing to stand for those beliefs in a great way. Our prayer is that this will not only serves as a symbol for what God’s standard for living is, but that this will also serve as a missions opportunity to point people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.”
The lawsuit also notes that Bullard’s office knew this might be a problem. His deputy sheriff wrote in an email to employees that, if they’re asked about the source of the monument, they should say it’s “paid for through donations,” adding that “The Supreme Court overturned the separation of church and state.” (That’s not true, even if the conservatives on SCOTUS have done everything in their power to weaken it.)
On the weekend the monument was installed, a memo was sent out urging employees to keep the public out of sight: “Do not let people gather around when delivered.”
When Bullard invited donors to celebrate the monument’s installation, he also told everyone to keep it private: “No news or social media.” Then he got on-duty cops to make sure only invited guests could attend the ceremony.
Things got even more bizarre after Bullard realized the monument in the building could pose serious legal problems. The lawsuit says he spoke to attorneys from First Liberty Institute who told him the monument needed to be moved outside—which is a weird suggestion since that wouldn’t resolve the myriad legal issues—but that relocation cost the county $5,250. Since he only had a few hundred dollars left over from the donations, he plucked the remainder ($4,868) from the County’s “Chirper Fund”… which is a public fund meant to help prisoners communicate with their loved ones.
During all this time, Bullard wasn’t just acting alone. The County Commissioners didn’t do anything to take down the monument. In fact, when they consulted County Attorney Sean Featherstun, he was, well, stunned.
Featherstun advised that he had consulted four lawyers, all of whom indicated that the Monument raised serious legal concerns, with the best advice from them being, “Hope you’re insured.” Featherstun expressed frustration that he was not consulted before the Monument was erected and noted that his “analysis doesn’t change” based on the Monument being moved…
…
Featherstun identified several factors that could weigh against the Monument’s legality, noting that “[a]n inconspicuous monument appears safer than a large prominent one” and that having “religious donors” undermines the argument that the monument is “non-religious”… He also noted that “[t]aken by themselves, the symbolism of the Ten Commandments is largely understood to be religious.…”
Despite his concerns, the board members voted to retain the monument on the courthouse lawn. One of them, the lawsuit claims, even said he was “willing to roll the dice” because the Board “gets sued all the time.”
Not every lawsuit has merit, but this one very obviously does.
The Plaintiffs are several Jefferson County residents, including a Christian pastor, who don’t believe the display belongs at the courthouse. (The pastor says “the Monument demeans and trivializes a holy text by turning it into a lawn decoration.” Another Plaintiff, who’s Catholic, objects to the version of the Commandments being used since it doesn’t line up with his beliefs and the version that is being used has been used in the past “to condemn Catholic religious practice.”)
“With the lawsuit, Jefferson County taxpayers are standing up for the fundamental constitutional principle that the government must remain neutral when it comes to matters of faith,” notes Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Erecting a Ten Commandments monument on public property, whether in the courthouse lobby or just outside the entryway, blatantly violates Illinois law.”
…
“In Illinois, we do not permit local politicians to use the power and authority of their office to promote their religious views,” adds Kevin Fee, legal director for the ACLU of Illinois. “Our organization has always worked to ensure that everyone’s religious freedom is respected. This monument — which must be removed immediately — attempts to undermine that freedom for many residents. We are pleased to represent these clients in seeking fairness in Jefferson County.”
Heather L. Weaver, senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, says: “The separation of church and state guarantees that we all have the right to decide, for ourselves, which religious beliefs, if any, people should follow. By sending the message that Jefferson County favors some faiths over others, the Ten Commandments monument intrudes on deeply personal matters. We’ll see Jefferson County in court.”
Even if the sheriff and the County Board did everything by the book and pretended this was all about honoring our nation’s past, they would have had an uphill climb trying to convince a judge this was a purely secular display. But when you look at what they actually said and did, and where the money came from, and all the ways they’ve tried to hide their true religious intentions, there’s just no getting around how these people used public money—and their government roles—to promote Christianity.
Their best play now is to just accept their loss and take down the monument before their eventual legal payouts pile up even more. Given the way they’ve ignored sensible advice to this point, though, they’ll likely double down and try to fight. It would be a foolish decision on their part. But that wouldn’t be very surprising. There’s a long documented trail of evidence showing one bad decision after another.
It is completely lost on the people who try to force the Ten Commandments into the public square, that eight of the Commandments are purely religious and would be unconstitutional should anyone try writing them into law. In spite of this obvious fact, Christians keep tying themselves in knots trying to claim our Constitution and this country are somehow based on them. The Constitution never mentions the Commandments, Jesus or the Bible. These are not accidental omissions.
Good!
And what does a set of laws meant only for the Chosen People have to do with Christianity anyway? Hell, Christians don't even obey the Ten Commandments NOW.