The appeals court Monday sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City for reconsideration based on a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Ten Commandments monuments.

A year ago, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins dismissed the Society of Separationists' lawsuit, saying the court couldn't second-guess a 1993 ruling by the 10th Circuit in a similar Utah case.

In that case, a panel of judges held that a monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments was primarily secular, not religious, and didn't tend to establish religious belief.

Pleasant Grove's memorial sits in a secluded area that honors the city's heritage. The monument has been on city property since the Fraternal Order of Eagles donated it in 1971.

Attorney Brian Barnard, representing the Separationists, argued the Ten Commandments should not be on public property because it is a clear violation of separating church and state and excludes by implication other religious ideals. He and the American Civil Liberties Union have been successful in having other Ten Commandments monuments around the state removed from public property.

When the Society of Separationists filed the lawsuit, City Attorney Christine Peterson argued the monument was established for a secular purpose and didn't promote any one religion.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court in two 5-4 rulings struck down framed copies of the Ten Commandments in two Kentucky courthouses but upheld a granite monument outside the Texas Capitol.

The court ruled that exhibits would be upheld if their main purpose was to honor the nation's legal, rather than religious, traditions, and if they didn't promote one religious sect over another.

The 10th Circuit said the lower court needed to examine facts in the Pleasant Grove case in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.