WASHINGTON – A stone monument of the Ten Commandments that sits on a street behind the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington and was the subject of controversy in the past has been toppled by vandals.

The granite monument sits in front of the headquarters of Faith and Action, a Christian outreach ministry. The group’s leader said the tablets were angled so that justices arriving at the Supreme Court would see them. The vandals pushed the monument over so that the words of the Ten Commandments are now face down.

Faith and Action bought the stone tablets at a charity auction in 2001 and installed them in a garden outsides its Washington offices in 2006. They were one of four removed by a federal court order from the fronts of public schools in Ohio.

U.S. courts have wrestled with whether public displays of the Ten Commandments violate the principle of separation of church and state.