During the hours of the night, the Ten Commandments monument was removed from the Oklahoma Capitol grounds. It had been decided by Oklahoma's Supreme Court that its placement on government land violated state law, and it had to be removed by Oct. 12.
Starting at 10:30 p.m. on Monday, workers began the removal process, while being protected by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, in case any protesters or viewers became violent.
The cost of removing the monument wasn't cheap, as the state will be paying $4,700. The monument will now be installed outside of Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, explained John Estus, a spokesman for Office of Management and Enterprise Services, according to US News.
"We wanted it to be done as quickly and efficiently as possible, and doing it at night gave us the best opportunity to do that. The Highway Patrol was also very concerned that having it in the middle of the day could lead to having demonstrations of some kind," Estus said, according to USA Today.
The legal director of American Civil Liberties Union, Brady Henderson, had an opinion on the removal of the monument as well.
"Now we know we have to change the Constitution. The whole case is controversial, but something that is undeniable is that the court is getting this right," said Henderson.
"I like history and I look at history and what we were teaching our children...we wanted to link them to as much as the original history - different facts that are being erased in our history," said Mike Ritze, a Republican state Representative. "In no way, shape or form did we want the monument to be a religious symbol."
The granite monument was built on Nov. 16, 2012.
"I felt like we needed to have a monument there to show current and future generations where a lot of our laws derive from," continued Ritze.
A lawsuit filed by a Baptist minister, Bruce Prescott, shortly after the monument was built claiming that it violated the state constitution. "Frankly, I'm glad we finally got the governor and attorney general to agree to let the monument be moved to private property, which is where I believe it's most appropriate," said Prescott, reported Daily Mail.
