A proposal to allow a privately funded monument to the Ten Commandments near the Arkansas Capitol is advancing to the state Senate for a vote.
The Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday endorsed the proposal by Republican Sen. Jason Rapert of Conway to require the state to allow a private group to build the monument on the Capitol grounds. The same proposal had failed before the committee a day earlier.
Rapert has said the monument would commemorate the role the commandments have had in the nation's legal system. Opponents of the bill said it would amount to an unconstitutional establishment of religion by the state.
The Senate is expected to take up the proposal Wednesday.
