A Ten Commandments monument has stood outside City Hall in Duluth for decades, but city leaders now have weeks to decide whether to move the monument or fight a lawsuit by the Minnesota Civil Liberties Union.

The MnCLU filed a lawsuit in federal court in Duluth on Feb. 27 to remove the monument after weeks of negotiations with the city. The city must respond in 30 days. The group objects to what it calls an unconstitutional confluence of church and state.

The issue has divided the town. One of the 11 plaintiffs in the case, Bill van Druten, says he has gotten a death threat. The First Presbyterian Church offered to play peacemaker by taking the monument onto its grounds, but was rebuffed.

Mayor Herb Bergson has vowed to keep the 7-foot monument, which has been on the City Hall lawn since October 1957. It was a gift to the city from the Fraternal Order of Eagles Aerie 79. The Eagles donated many such monuments throughout Minnesota.

“His position has been that the monument will not be moved until he is ordered to move it,” said Jeff Papas, a city spokesman, of Bergson. Bergson was traveling Feb. 27 and could not be reached for comment.

Papas said he had not seen the MnCLU complaint and would not comment on it. He did say the issue has prompted more telephone calls to City Hall than any other in his eight years with the city. Nearly all have favored keeping the monument.

“It’s very passionate, and we know that,” Papas said.

Charles Samuelson, executive director of the MnCLU, said he had little doubt that the court would rule in favor of his group. “As a legal matter, this is about as established as law gets,” he said.

Just last month, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — which has jurisdiction over Minnesota — upheld a ruling that a Ten Commandments monument had to be removed from a city park in Plattsmouth, Neb.

Samuelson said he doubted rulings elsewhere would persuade leaders in other cities with monuments, including Albert Lea, Brainerd and Faribault, to take them down.

“I would hope they would, but the reality is that they may need to be sued,” he said of the city and county leaders. “The politicians may need us to sue them to get those people not to vote against them.”

Samuelson said his group has no immediate plans for additional lawsuits because they require local plaintiffs and local attorneys, which can be difficult to recruit in small towns. In Duluth, local attorney Howard Carp volunteered to take the case.

Some cities that have the monuments say their presence hasn’t been an issue. In Albert Lea, city manager Paul Sparks has held the job for more than 20 years and said he’s never heard a complaint about a Ten Commandments monument donated to his town by the Eagles in the late 1950s.

Sparks said the monument sits in the original town square, which has fallen into disuse as the city has evolved over the years. He was surprised to hear from a reporter about it last week.

“It has never been controversial,” he said. “We actually were hoping that we could stay under the radar screen and no one would mention it.”