Casper City Council Moves Monument, Rebuffs Phelps

The latest on the Fred Phelps saga is here. The Casper City Council decided to move their 10 Commandments monument to a park that will put it in historical context. They also banned Phelps from this park. Not to undone, Phelps is trying to place his monument in Idaho. Here's the Casper story:

City Council decides to create monument plaza

By BRENDAN BURKE Star-Tribune staff writer
On a 5-4 vote the Casper City Council on Tuesday decided to move the city's Ten Commandments monument from City Park to a new historic plaza on the corner of Beech and Second streets.

The council also unanimously voted to reject an offer from Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., to place a monument declaring slain gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is in hell anywhere on city property.

The decision to move the Ten Commandments to the new plaza is designed to keep the monument on public property and in a context that will play up the Decalogue's historic value.

Several council members stated that by highlighting the historic value of the Ten Commandments, the city will be less vulnerable to potential litigation.

However, spokespersons for both the Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison, Wis., and the Westboro Baptist Church said the move is nothing more than an attempt to circumvent the law laid down by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002 when it ruled in the case of Summan v. Ogden , which states a city that displays a Ten Commandments monument must also display monuments espousing more unpopular beliefs.

The motion to place the Ten Commandments monument in the new plaza was introduced by Councilman Paul Bertoglio and seconded by Councilman Ed Opella, after the council voted on another 5-4 vote to take the monument out of City Park where it has been since 1965, the year the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated it to the city.

Along with Bertoglio and Opella, Councilwomen Jacquie Anderson, Lynne Whalen and Mayor Barb Peryam voted for the plaza plan.

Council members Barb Watters, Guy Padgett, Renee Burgess and Mildred Lamb, who had to participate in the meeting via telephone due to incapacitation caused by a broken ankle, voted against the proposal.

Watters, Padgett, Burgess, Lamb and Peryam voted to remove the monument from City Park.

"This is where our statement of faith, our statements of values, our backbone belongs," Peryam said while endorsing the historic plaza plan. "And for those outsiders who think they can run our city, I say, 'Thank you, thank you very, very much.' Because, you know what, if you think that we are going to put our monument someplace in cold storage, I've got another thought for you. We are going to put it where it will be more noticed, more taken advantage of and used for learning purposes by all families.

"If we are going to be taken to court for this action, then so be it," Peryam added. "Bring it on because this is a battle I firmly believe we can win."

However, neither Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation nor Shirley Phelps-Roper of the Westboro Baptist Church shared Peryam's assessment of the city's chances in a court case defending the constitutionality of the historic plaza plan.

"It looks like a ruse; it looks like a trick for them to keep it," Barker said. "It would probably be unconstitutional because the intention of the city is to maintain a religious document. The reason they are doing that is to keep the Ten Commandments."

Phelps-Roper agreed with Barker.

"What they have done is a thinly veiled attempt to do an end run around the Constitution," she said. "What they did here was try to create a way to avoid having to deal what the 10th Circuit said they must do."

Barker was unable to say what his organization's next move on the matter of Casper's Ten Commandments will be.

Phelps-Roper, however, said her church will "explore our options." Asked if those options include litigation, her response was, "Of course they do."

After the City Council approved moving the Ten Commandments to the new plaza, Watters introduced a measure to give the Decalogue back to the Eagles if a lawsuit is filed against the city challenging the constitutionality of the historic plaza. The measure failed.

The Casper City Council has been embroiled in a controversy over the Ten Commandments since last month, when the Freedom of Religion Foundation sent a letter to the city asking for the monolith's removal.

The foundation claims having a Ten Commandments monument on city property is a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The controversy deepened when Phelps announced plans to place a monument in City Park near the Ten Commandments.

City Manager Tom Forslund said the Ten Commandments monument will probably be removed from City Park and placed in temporary storage some time in the next month. He was unsure, however, exactly when the move will be done.

The idea for the new historic plaza is based on a plan utilized by the city of Grand Junction, Colo., that withstood a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2001.

Under the plan adopted Tuesday, the city of Casper will construct a plaza on city-owned land located on the southeast corner of Beech and Second streets. The Ten Commandments will be joined in the new plaza by monuments honoring the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble of the United States Constitution and other documents vital to the historic development of American law, Forslund said.

The city budgeted money to renovate the now-vacant plot into a plaza of some kind when it passed its fiscal year 2004 budget in June.

Design work on the historic plaza should begin this winter and bidding should take place next spring, Forslund said. Hopefully the plaza will be finished in a year, the city manager added.

The new monuments for the plaza will cost the city between $4,500 and $5,500 each, Forslund said.

Here's the Idaho story:

Kansas minister wants to erect anti-gay monument in Idaho

By REBECCA BOONE

Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A minister known for his fiery rhetoric against homosexuals and who unsuccessfully fought to erect an anti-gay monument in Casper, Wyo., is now turning to the tiny town of Rupert, Idaho.

The Rev. Fred Phelps asked Minidoka County Commissioners this week to buy a small section of the courthouse lawn for the same monument rejected by Casper's city leaders on Tuesday.

He got the idea after learning that Rupert's local American Legion post was seeking to buy the land for a Ten Commandments monument. American Legion members hoped that by purchasing the land, they could display the biblical message without violating the separation of church and state.

''I didn't think anybody would come up with buying a 2- by 3-foot spot of the land. That's a wonderful idea,'' Phelps said.

Commissioners said they have not yet reviewed Phelps' request and do not know if they could legally sell a portion of the land. But their reaction to the proposed monument - which says that a slain University of Wyoming student went to hell because he was gay - was guarded.

''I'm afraid this is a can of worms getting opened up,'' said Commissioner Dave Teeter. ''Personally I don't think there's a chance that it's going to happen. It's just going to get worse. Here I thought we were a nice town, and we don't need that around here.''

American Legion member Don Murray was disappointed to learn of Phelps' request.

''I think it's a shame. We just wanted to do something for the community, and all of a sudden other people want to take advantage of it,'' Murray said.

Murray said that if the American Legion is unable to purchase courthouse land, they will not attempt to post the Ten Commandments anywhere else.

Phelps, 73, of Topeka, Kan., said he was unconcerned that his anti-gay message could prevent the Ten Commandments from being displayed in Rupert, a community of 5,645 people about 165 miles southeast of Boise.

''My message is infinitely more important than the Ten Commandments, because nobody is delivering it,'' Phelps said.

If denied, Phelps said he may attempt to buy land near the courthouse for the monument.

He already has started advertising for land near downtown in Casper, Wyo. offering to pay ''top dollar.''

''We're prepared to go as high as we need to go,'' he said.

Casper is the hometown of slain student Matthew Shepard, who was beaten and left for dead outside Laramie, Wyo. Shepard's 1998 murder sparked a national outcry for hate-crimes legislation. Phelps picketed the funeral.

On Phelps' proposed monument for Rupert, Shepard is pictured along with the inscription: ''MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered Hell October 12, 1998, at Age 21, In defiance of God's solemn warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22.''

Phelps said he was attracted to Rupert because he believes it is a place where the monument would be safe from vandalism.

''I'm not planning to put one in the Castro district of San Francisco where all the homosexuals rule. We plan to dot this country with these monuments, where at least they're not determined to destroy it,'' he said.

Commissioner Marvin Bingham said the matter would be discussed Monday at the next commissioners' meeting.

Comments

[Vigilance Matters]

Fred Phelps and Michael Newdow would make a great couple, don't you think? Maybe we can ship them off to Canda and let them get married...