© Robert V. Ritter, Founder, Jefferson Madison Center for Religious Liberty

About EaglesMonuments.com

Hello, my name is Robert V. “Bob” Ritter. I am a retired attorney on inactive status in Virginia. I am also a member of the Supreme Court bar. I founded the Jefferson Madison Center for Religious Liberty in 2007 as a personal project to educate Americans about Thomas Jefferson’s and James Madison’s view of religious freedom, including the principle of separation of church and state embodied in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Between 2007 and 2010, I served as legal coordinator and staff attorney at the American Humanist Association in Washington, D.C. During that time, I authored (with the assistance of a legal intern) an amicus brief in Pleasant Grove City v. Summum, 555 U.S. 460 (2009) which indirectly involved an Eagles Ten Commandments monument. An American-Israeli citizen by the name of Avrahaum Segol read my Summum brief and contacted me at AHA. He asked that I help him get Van Orden v. Perry, 545 U.S. 677 (2005) reversed. That cased involved an Eagles Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Because AHA was not actively involved in an Eagles monument case at that time, I was not able to offer Avrahaum assistance on behalf of the organization. However, I became very interested in the Eagles Ten Commandments program, and Avrahaum and I subsequently collaborated on research for several years. I am deeply indebted to him for the information that he has shared with me. The mission of this website is to solicit information from the public about Fraternal Order of Eagles (donated) Ten Commandment monuments located in the United States and Canada, including information about their location, history and digital photographs of the monuments. I intend to use this information in a book I am currently writing titled Supreme Scandal: The Supreme Court Blesses the Ten Commandments. The book, in addition to chapters on the Eagles Ten Commandments program and its founder, Judge E. J. Ruegemer, is more broadly about my journey in search of religious freedom in America and the religious war being waged by the Christian Right to turn our secular nation into a Christian nation. Fortunately, there are a number of organizations, including American Atheists, the American Civil Liberties Union (of which I have been a card carrying member since 1969), the American Humanist Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Freedom From Religion Foundation, that are vigourously working to protect our religious freedom. We are deeply indebted to them for their service in defending the Constitution. Last, let me be perfectly clear: my ultimate goal is to assist in moving Eagles Ten Commandment monuments from public property to private property -- not to destroy them. The public square belongs to all Americans where no one religion is entitled to preference over another religion, or religion generally over nonbelief. The Constitution prohibits all religious monuments on public property or requires cities and states to permit all religious and nonbelief monuments -- an impractical alternative.