FARGO, N.D. — A dozen individuals or organizations are willing to buy the land under a 1961 Ten Commandments marker near City Hall, but that may not end complaints that the display violates church-state separation, Mayor Bruce Furness said.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Red River Freethinkers contend the public location is unconstitutional.
At a hearing of Fargo's Human Relations Commission, freethinkers chairman Wesley Twombly said a shift to privately owned land was unacceptable. "Any reasonable person would still see it as being on public property," he said.
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The Rev. William Sherman said he was distressed at the opposition because the Ten Commandments "are the basis for the cultural underpinnings of America."