Fallin Speaks On Removal Of Ten Commandments Monument From State Capitol

Gov. Mary Fallin briefly spoke with reporters at the new home of the Ten Commandments monument on Tuesday, after the two-ton granite slab was removed from the capitol grounds late Monday night.

Now settled on the grounds of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a Conservative think-tank, the monument was a lightning rod for controversy since being installed at the capitol in 2012.

“We are very disappointed that the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that we could not have the Ten Commandments monument on the state capitol,” Fallin said. “We appealed that but they chose not to take up our appeal.”

10/5/2015 Related Story: Crews Remove Ten Commandments Monument 

From the beginning, several groups lobbied against the monument, and other religious groups fought to have symbols of their faith erected on the capitol grounds too.

In June 2015, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the display violates a state constitutional prohibition on the use of public property to support "any sect, church, denomination or system of religion" and gave it until October 12 to remove it from state property.

Fallin vowed to keep up the effort to try and get the monument back to the capitol once the next legislative session begins.

“We hope…we’ll be able to work with our legislators to be able to send a resolution to the vote of the people so that they can eliminate the Blaine Amendment that the Supreme Court used to keep us from having this historical Ten Commandments monument on the state grounds.”