Arkansas A.G. Pushes Back Against Lawsuit Over Ten Commandments Monument

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Above: Former Sen. Jason Rapert and then-Rep. Kim Hammer unveil Arkansas’ monument commemorating the Ten Commandments in this file photo from 2018. Atheist organizations filed a lawsuit to have the monument removed, but the case has remained in limbo for seven years.

Attorney General Tim Griffin’s legal team continues to stand up for Arkansas’ monument of the Ten Commandments in court.

In 2015, the Arkansas Legislature authorized a privately funded monument of the Ten Commandments on the Arkansas Capitol Building grounds. The monument is identical to one the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional at the capitol building in Texas.

It was unveiled in 2018, but atheist groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Satanic Temple quickly filed a federal lawsuit to have the monument removed. The case has been in legal limbo ever since.

Earlier this month the groups suing the state filed a notice alleging that federal court rulings over Ten Commandments displays in Louisiana support their case against Arkansas’ monument.

However, Attorney General Tim Griffin’s team fired back in court, pointing out the lawsuit in Louisiana is different from the situation in Arkansas and defending the Ten Commandments’ longstanding history and tradition in our country.

As we have said many times, historians have long recognized the Ten Commandments as one of the earliest examples of the rule of law in human history, and they have helped shape philosophy and laws in countries around the world.

That’s why the Ten Commandments traditionally have appeared in artwork at courthouses and similar locations.

Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument commemorates their cultural and historical legacy. With that in mind, we believe our federal courts eventually will resolve this lawsuit and uphold Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Major Children’s Hospital to Halt Gender Procedures Amid Legal Scrutiny

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Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., is set to stop performing sex-change procedures on children.

A statement on the hospital’s website says it will stop prescribing “gender-affirming medications” — that is, puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones — effective August 30. The statement indicates the decision was prompted by “escalating legal and regulatory risks” to the hospital, its providers, and its patients.

Earlier this month the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had issued subpoenas to doctors and medical facilities involved in performing sex-change procedures on minors.

The Federal Trade Commission also hosted a workshop highlighting the dangers of so-called “gender-affirming care” for children. Both federal agencies appear to be concerned about the deception that often surrounds sex-change procedures — especially when these procedures are performed on children.

In recent years, men and women have come forward with chilling testimony about how they were rushed through gender-transition as children, and experts have revealed how the medical “consensus” in support of performing transgender procedures on children was largely manufactured by pro-LGBT organizations.

Medical experts in the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and elsewhere have found that science simply does not support giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

In 2021, Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act prohibiting doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Unfortunately, a federal judge blocked the SAFE Act, but in June the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Tennessee.

Last week, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office argued in federal court that the decision confirms what he and others have said all along: The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children “from dangerous, experimental gender-transition procedures.”

Since 2021, scientific research has continued to show Arkansas made the right call by passing a law protecting children from sex-change procedures. Public opinion polling shows Arkansans support laws like the SAFE Act.

Sex-change procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones can leave children permanently scarred, sterilized, and at risk of serious health conditions. Doctors do not know the long-term effects that these procedures might have on people. The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children in Arkansas, and we believe our federal courts will ultimately uphold it as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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