A Federal appeals court has ruled that a Ten Commandments display in North Dakota is not a violation of the Constitution.

A Ten Commandments monument was donated to the city of Fargo 50 years ago by the Fraternal Order of Eagles.  The monument was placed in the city’s Civic Plaza, which is a public space.  An anti-Christian group has been fighting against the monument since 2002 in an attempt to eliminate Christianity from being seen in public places.

Fargo’s Board of City Commissioners had initially attempted to appease the anti-Christianists by moving the monument to private land but residents objected and petitioned the city to pass an ordinance that any monument on public land that had been in place for 40 or more years could not be moved.

When the anti-Christian group sued, a lower court said that the monument presented no Constitutional violation because it showed the impact of religion on the nation’s history.  The appeals court upheld that ruling on a 2-1 decision.

“Like the Ten Commandments monument at issue in Van Orden, the Plattsmouth monument makes passive—and permissible—use of the text of the Ten Commandments to acknowledge the role of religion in our nation’s heritage,” the court ruled referring to other cases where the Ten Commandments have been allowed in public spaces.