After a three-year exodus from public display in Casper, the Ten Commandments are in line to return at a historic plaza, accompanied by five other historical monuments.

The City Council is scheduled tonight to approve a resolution to create a historic monuments plaza at the corner of Beech and Second Streets for no more than $11,500, according to the city's agenda.

Casper's Ten Commandments, also known as a Decalogue, was donated by the Fraternal Order of the Eagles and sat in City Park at Center and Seventh Streets from 1965 until three years ago.

In September 2003, a group called the Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., threatened a number of lawsuits against cities around the country that displayed the Ten Commandments, calling the displays a violation of the First Amendment.

In order to give all religious groups equal expression, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2002 that a city that displays the Ten Commandments must also display monuments espousing other beliefs. The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., offered to place a monument anywhere on city property declaring that slain gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard is in hell.

The Council rejected Phelps' offer and looked at the historic plaza idea after Grand Junction, Colo., won a lawsuit against the American Civil Liberties Union. That ruling found that a Ten Commandments monument could be allowed if it were displayed in a context that played up its historical merit, instead of its religious attributes, so that a reasonable person would not think the government was endorsing a particular religion.

"If you think that we are going to put our monument someplace in cold storage, I've got another thought for you," said then-mayor Barb Peryam at the Council's Oct. 28, 2003, meeting. "We are going to put it where it will be more noticed, more taken advantage of and used for learning purposes by all families."

Peryam said at the time she thought the city's move would withstand legal challenge.

The Ten Commandments were moved into storage on Nov. 14, 2003.

City administrative analyst Peter Meyers said Monday that the city is following a well-established legal precedent and said he thinks the city will install the historic plaza in the spring, should the Council pass the resolution tonight.

Like the Grand Junction plaza, the Casper historic plaza will also contain monuments honoring the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, the Mayflower Compact, the Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta.

Meyers said the city found four sponsors to each pay $2,500 for the construction of one monument. Sponsors are First Interstate Bank, Reliant Federal Credit Union, Hilltop Bank and Five Trails Rotary Club. He said the city is hoping for one more group to sponsor the Mayflower Compact.

Linda Burt, executive director of the ACLU in Wyoming, said the Ten Commandments were a big issue three years ago, but noted that several cities in Wyoming still have a Decalogue on public land that aren't being contested. Burt said Casper's plans for a historic plaza sound like they would comply with the law and didn't think her group would sue the city.

The Council meets at 6 p.m. tonight in the City Council Chambers. The meeting is open to the public.

Reporter John Morgan can be reached at (307) 266-0614 or john.morgan@casperstartribune.net.