The American Civil Liberties Union has dropped its lawsuit challenging a granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments in front of a north Florida courthouse.

ACLU of Florida executive director Howard Simon said Friday that the group had to withdraw the case because its client, a North Carolina man, no longer plans to move to Dixie County.

Simon, though, said it's only a matter of time before the suit is re-filed because eventually someone in Dixie County will have the courage to step forward.

A federal judge ruled the six-ton monument at the courthouse in Cross City crosses the constitutional line separating church and state and ordered it removed.

That ruling was put on hold and appealed on grounds the plaintiff wasn't a county resident so lacked standing to sue.