Federal judge rules atheists have no legal standing to challenge monument

Today, March 10, a United States District Court judge for the Western District Of Oklahoma dismissed a federal lawsuit against the Oklahoma Ten Commandments monument. The monument is one of many on the grounds of the Oklahoma State Capitol. The federal judge ruled that the plaintiffs, American Atheists, Inc. and their activists, lacked standing, giving them no grounds to bring a legal challenge against the monument.

“Today’s ruling reaffirms the constitutional principle that a person who goes out of his way to take offense does not have a constitutional claim under the Establishment Clause,” Liberty Institute General Counsel Jeff Mateer said. Liberty Institute, along with Oklahoma’s Attorney General, represented the State of Oklahoma in the case.

American Atheists, an anti-faith group, and its activists argued that the monument is unconstitutional because it contains religious imagery and is located on government property. The federal judge’s ruling follows a recent ruling by an Oklahoma state court judge, declaring that the Ten Commandments monument on the Oklahoma capitol grounds is constitutional.