Under a trio of American, Indiana and Christian flags, a seven-foot limestone monument has greeted the congregation of 39th Street Christian Church in Bedford every Sunday morning. For the better part of the last two decades, leaders at the small church have kept it presentable, weeding around it and washing it on occasion.
Pastor Seth Wisley said the local landmark serves as a statement about what his church and the broader community stand for. The monument is inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the Bill of Rights and the Preamble to the Indiana Constitution.
However, that monument could come to symbolize more than the values carved into it.
About 25 years ago, a court order barred the monument from the Indiana Statehouse. After a shift in case law, a federal judge agreed to reopen the case in late May, setting off a renewed legal fight over whether the Ten Commandments can be returned to the Capitol's grounds.
Gov. Mike Braun and Attorney General Todd Rokita, both Republicans, want the monument restored. They argue it reflects the nation's history and traditions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana opposes the move, saying it would violate the First Amendment's religious freedom clause.
Now, the monument's fate depends on the federal court system's appetite to specify what it means to maintain a separation of church and state under modern precedent.
How we got here
In December 2025, Braun and Rokita sought to reopen a court case in which a federal judge ruled in 2002 that the monument was an unlawful establishment of religion by the state.
The effort to reopen the case comes after the U.S. Supreme Court recently broadened what is permissible under the Constitution regarding the intertwining of religion and state activities. In 2022, it largely mooted a long-held but unraveling legal standard, called the Lemon Test, used to assess whether the government violated the First Amendment's establishment clause. They did so when deciding whether a high school football coach can pray on the field after a game.
The justices reframed the establishment clause to be interpreted in "reference to historical practices and understandings." Braun and Rokita are leaning on this shift, saying the Ten Commandments are intertwined with the nation’s history and traditions.
In response to the request from state leaders, Judge Sarah Evans Barker of the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana agreed in a May 28 order that the legal underpinning used to find that the monument's place at the Statehouse was unconstitutional had shifted enough that the 2002 ruling should be reconsidered.
The state did not prove that the monument's placement on the grounds was constitutional, just that the argument previously used was legally outdated, Barker said. Therefore, she gave the ACLU a chance to file a new complaint to challenge its placement at the Statehouse, which the organization did on June 29.
The ACLU acknowledges that case law has changed, but argues that the newer cases do not make this particular Statehouse display constitutional. The updated complaint includes multiple residents who frequent the Statehouse and feel the monument would clash with their religious views and unfairly establish a state religion.
"No one is questioning the right of a church, home, or private organization to display the Ten Commandments,” said Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana, in a news release. “But when the State puts that text on the lawn of the Statehouse, it is no longer private expression. It becomes a government-endorsed message about religion, and the First Amendment does not allow the State to send that message.”
Indiana wouldn't be the first state capitol with the Ten Commandments on its grounds. The state of Texas successfully defended its right to display a monument in a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case, but in April, the state of Arkansas was ordered to remove its monument. The effort mirrors a conservative national trend to inject the Ten Commandments into government buildings, courtrooms and classrooms.
The court will consider the new complaint and additional filings over the next several months.
Monument means a lot to Bedford pastor
If the state is successful, the monument on a highway corner in rural Bedford, Indiana, would be moved to the Indiana Statehouse. Though intended to be placed in Indianapolis, this particular monument has never sat on the grounds due to the 2002 court decision.
Instead, it ended up in Bedford after a group of local politicians volunteered to place the monument at the courthouse. It was then moved across the street under an awning in front of a Subway for several years.
"It's a big part of my memory of being in Bedford and around the square when I was a child," Wisley said. "I remember driving to the square in town with my parents, and there were multiple occasions where we'd stop on the square and get out and walk over and see it and read through it."
Though the monument was highly accessible, it was easy to vandalize and for people to bump into and climb on, he said. The previous pastor and founder of 39th Street Church, Frank Johnson, offered to host the monument on the church's lawn until it could be reinstated at the Statehouse, Wisley said.
The church congregation who have cared for the monument over the past 20 years is split.
"To be honest, we hate to see it go because it's been such a staple and a monument here for the community and congregation," Wisley said. "But at the same time, we think it's a big step in the right direction for making a statement that we are still one nation under God, and we believe that we should follow those principles and values instilled by our Creator."
If the monument is moved back to the Capitol, Wisley said the church's plan is to commission a duplicate to stand in its place. They are tracking down the original blueprints, and if need be, they will find a piece of limestone to create an identical monument.