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F.O.E. Ten Commandment Monuments in Colorado (4)
| Aspen, Colorado |
Aspen, CO Ten Commandments Monument
Photo by Michael Sauers available at
https://farm1.staticflickr.com/97/246484243_e7fc4b66ae_o_d.jpg
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Conner Memorial Park
Aspen, Colorado
Screenshot: Google Maps street view October 2012 |
Donated by FOE: 1968
Location: Conner Memorial Park (facing E. Hopkins Ave.), next to City Hall, 130 South Galena St.
Scroll: “Presented To The City / Of Aspen, Colorado By / Aspen Aerie And / Auxiliary No. 184 / Fraternal Order Of Eagles / 1968”
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| Denver, Colorado |
Libery Park, Denver, Colorado
Screenshot:Google Maps street view October 2016
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Denver, CO Ten Commandments Monument
Lincoln Park
Colorado State Capitol
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Donated by FOE: June 1955
Location: Lincoln Park, Colorado State Capitol (monument facing Broadway at Colefax Ave.).
Scroll: “Presented / By Members Of / Fraternal Order Of / Eagles / Of Colorado”
Litigation: In 1989, the Freedom of Religion Foundation (FFRF) sued Colorado in state court to remove the 1955 Eagles Ten Commandments monument on Capitol grounds in Denver. The trial judge ruled that the Ten Commandments were the basis of constitutional law and its display did not violate the First Amendment (1992). The trial court bought Judge Ruegemer’s false testimony that he did not intend the Eagles Ten Commandments program to be “religious instruction of any kind.”
FFRF appealed and won the case before the Colorado Court of Appeals. (June 1993)
Colorado appealed and the State Supreme Court en banc reversed the appeals court. State of Colorado v. FFRF, 898 P.2d 1013 (June 12, 1995). The Court concocted a sham secular purpose, writing: “[W]e find that the preeminent purpose of erecting the monument was not plainly religious in nature—rather, the monument represents the secular objective intended at the outset, recognition of a historical, jurisprudential cornerstone of American legal significance. Moreover, the content and context of the display do not convey a message that any person is excluded from our political community based on religious beliefs or the lack of such beliefs.”
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to take the case (cert. denied, 1995).
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| Glenwood Springs, Colorado
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Glenwood Springs, CO Ten Commandments Monument
Saint Stephen Catholic Church
Screenshot: Google Maps street view October 2012
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Donated by FOE: October 5, 1957
Current Location: Saint Stephen Catholic Church, 1885 Blake Ave. (at the corner of 19th St.).
Notes: The monument was originally presented to Glennwood Springs Mayor Jack C. Mitchel at the 1957 Colorado Eagles’ State President’s Ball and Inter-Aerie meeting held in Glenwood Springs. Its orginal location is unknown. The monument was moved to the Church of the Nazarene in the late 1980s. The church was later sold and the monument moved to its current location.
Scroll: “Presented To The City Of / Glenwood Springs / By / Glenwood Springs Aerie No. 215 / Fraternal Order of Eagles / October 5, 1957”
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