Groups File Briefs Against Arkansas Ten Commandments Monument Before 8th Circuit
Last week, attorneys representing individuals and atheist organizations opposed to Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument filed legal briefs with the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.
In 2015, the Arkansas General Assembly passed a law authorizing a privately funded monument of the Ten Commandments at the Capitol Building in Little Rock, and the monument was finally unveiled three years later. But almost immediately, atheist groups filed a lawsuit to remove the monument from the Capitol grounds. The case languished in federal court until a judge ruled against the monument earlier this year.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has appealed to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the Ten Commandments monument on the State Capitol grounds. Last week, attorneys for the Satanic Temple, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Humanist Association, the ACLU, and others filed legal briefs arguing the monument is unconstitutional and should be removed.
But as Family Council pointed out in an amicus brief filed over the summer, the district court in Little Rock went against U.S. Supreme Court precedent when it ruled against the monument earlier this year.
The U.S. Supreme Court reviews monuments like Arkansas’ in light of their longstanding history and tradition. 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 have traditionally appeared in artwork at public buildings across America.
Arkansas’ monument commemorates that same historical and cultural legacy. It’s also identical to a monument the U.S. Supreme Court ruled constitutional at the Texas Capitol Building in 2005. With all of that in mind, we believe our federal courts will ultimately let Arkansas’ Ten Commandments monument remain on the State Capitol grounds.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
CDC Data Shows Younger Teens Much Less Likely to Identify as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual
Our friends at the Daily Citizen report that new data from the Centers for Disease Control shows the number of teenagers who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual has dropped dramatically.
Social psychologist Jean Twenge of San Diego State University analyzed the CDC’s 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey and found the decline is striking — especially among younger girls.
The numbers matter because they tell us something important about what has been driving the spike in LGBT identification among young people in the first place.
For years, researchers have said that the sudden spike in the number of teens who identified as transgender seemed like a social contagion. The same thing appears to have been at work with LGB sexual orientations as well.
In other words, a significant number of young people — particularly girls — may have identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual because the culture around them made it popular. Now that the cultural winds are shifting, those numbers are shifting too.
We have written before about how support for same-sex marriage and other pro-LGBT issues is falling along with support for sex-change procedures.
Corporate support for LGBT “Pride” has fizzled in recent years. Fortune 500 companies have abandoned the pro-LGBT Equality Index, and many workplaces no longer use pro-LGBT diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Today we know pro-LGBT activists and medical organizations spent years citing each other’s work in a circular pattern to manufacture a fake consensus about performing sex-change procedures on kids. Whistleblowers have come forward testifying about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the risks, consequences, or alternatives.
Arkansas has been at the forefront of protecting children from gender ideology. In 2021, Arkansas’ lawmakers passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Arkansas was the first state in America to enact a law like the SAFE Act, and since then lawmakers in more than half the country have passed similar legislation. Arkansas has also been a leader when it comes to enacting good laws that protect public school students from pro-LGBT indoctrination in the classroom.
This new CDC data fits into the bigger picture of how attitudes may be changing when it comes to sexual orientation, gender identity, and similar issues. It’s something conservatives can be cautiously optimistic about as we go forward.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.