WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court Wednesday took up the issue of freedom of speech and religion in a case in which a small sect wants to place its own monument alongside one of the Ten Commandments in a public park in Utah.

The sect, called Summum, filed a lawsuit against the small city of Pleasant Grove for rejecting their monument while allowing the Ten Commandments erected in 1971 by the Fraternal Order of Eagles because it had a historic value.

Summum sued the city for violating their right to free speech and lost, but an appeals court sided with them, ruling that their star-shaped monument had every right to stand alongside the other which it deemed of a religious and not a historic nature.

The Eagles had convinced Pleasant Grove, founded by 19th century Mormons, that the Ten Commandments monument was a tribute not to the Christian religion but to the Mormon pioneers who settled the area.

The nine supreme justices on Wednesday began hearing arguments from both sides involving the constitutional principles of freedom of speech, religion and the separation of church and state.