New Texas Law Will Require Public Schools To Display Ten Commandments

‘We will not allow Texas lawmakers to divide communities along religious lines and attempt to turn public schools into Sunday schools,’ the ACLU says.

Alex Wong/Getty Images
Students rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to support the Ten Commandments in 2005. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Schools in Texas will soon be required to display the Ten Commandments, even after a federal court of appeals ruled a similar law in Louisiana is unconstitutional.

Governor Abbott over the weekend signed Senate Bill 10, which requires every public classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments on posters that are at least 16 inches by 20 inches. The bill also prohibits other, similar posters containing laws of other religions from being displayed. 

The Supreme Court ruled in the 1980 decision in Stone v. Graham that laws requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments are unconstitutional. However, advocates of the policies are optimistic that the high court’s current 6-3 conservative majority will rule in favor of the laws, similar to how it has overturned the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade. 

The ACLU said it plans to file a challenge against the new Texas law, which is set to take effect in September. 

“S.B. 10 is blatantly unconstitutional. We will be working with Texas public school families to prepare a lawsuit to stop this violation of students’ and parents’ First Amendment rights,” the ACLU said. “S.B. 10 will co-opt the faith of millions of Texans and marginalize students and families who do not subscribe to the state’s favored scripture. We will not allow Texas lawmakers to divide communities along religious lines and attempt to turn public schools into Sunday schools.”

Texas is one of more than a dozen states that have pushed legislation requiring the public display of the Ten Commandments. 

Supporters of such bills say that the Ten Commandments are influential in the founding of America. A Texas state senator who sponsored the bill, Phil King, said the commandments are “ingrained into who we are as a people and as a nation,” and that if students “don’t know the Ten Commandments, they will never understand the foundation for much of American history and law.”

However, critics of the bills say they violate the First Amendment and the separation of church and state.

On Friday, a panel of three federal appellate judges upheld a ruling from a lower court that found Louisiana’s law is “facially unconstitutional.”

The attorney general of Louisiana, Liz Murrill, said in a statement, “We strongly disagree with the Fifth Circuit’s affirmance of an injunction preventing five Louisiana parishes from implementing HB71. We will immediately seek relief from the full Fifth Circuit and, if necessary, the United States Supreme Court.”


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