Texas lawmakers approve bill requiring Ten Commandments in every classroom

Texas Governor Greg Abbott is set to sign a bill into law that requires all public school classrooms in the state to prominently display the Ten Commandments, the latest move from Republican lawmakers across the country to integrate religion in public education.

State lawmakers approved a measure over the weekend that requires every classroom to visibly display a poster — no smaller than 16 by 20 inches — that contains the Ten Commandments, but only as written in the legislation. No other language can be added to the poster, under the bill.

Senate Bill 10 is expected to advance to the governor’s desk despite a federal court order striking down a similar law in neighboring Louisiana, where that state’s Republican Governor Jeff Landry welcomed a lawsuit alleging egregious violations of the First Amendment’s firewall between church and state.

The bill in Texas passed the state House by a vote of 88-46 on Sunday. Texas Republicans rejected Democratic amendments to the bill that would allow schools to opt out or present the Ten Commandments in languages other than English.

Abbott is expected to sign the legislation after its final approval in the state Senate, which initially passed the bill in March by a vote of 20-11 on party lines.

Under the bill, all public elementary or secondary schools must “display in a conspicuous place in each classroom of the school a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.”

“It is incumbent on all of us to follow God’s law and I think we would all be better off if we did,” Republican state Rep. Candy Noble said during floor debate Saturday.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick listed the bill among his chief priorities this year.

“By placing the Ten Commandments in our public school classrooms, we ensure our students receive the same foundational moral compass as our state and country’s forefathers,” Patrick said in a statement earlier this year.

Last year, District Judge John Wheadon deGravelles paused a similar Louisiana law that swiftly drew legal challenges from civil rights groups anticipating a Supreme Court battle.

The law violates the First Amendment’s provisions against the government from establishing or favoring one religion over another, and from interfering with a right to practice a religion without government interference, according to the ruling.

There is a “real and substantial likelihood of coercion” if Louisiana students are forced to be a “captive audience” for “a specific version of the Ten Commandments, one posted in every single classroom,” deGravelles wrote.

Conservative Christian legal groups have been angling for another shot at reversing Supreme Court rulings protecting the separation of church and state for decades.

Lawmakers in Arkansas have advanced similar legislation, and Oklahoma’s chief school officials mandated copies of the Bible and Ten Commandments in all classrooms with “immediate and strict compliance.”

Texas lawmakers have also approved legislation that would allow school districts to create designated times for prayer and reading the Bible or “other religious text” with parental consent. Governor Abbott is also expected to sign it into law.

Rocío Fierro-Pérez, political director of the Texas Freedom Network, called the measure a “blatant violation of the First Amendment and an escalation in the ongoing effort to turn public schools into tools of government-endorsed religion.”

Legislation to incorporate Christian teachings in public schools joins a nationwide effort from conservative special interest groups to move public funds into religious education, dovetailing with efforts within Donald Trump’s administration and across the country to let families use taxpayer funds to send their children to private school.

This week, the Supreme Court reached a surprise tie in a case that could decide whether Oklahoma could open the first-ever taxpayer funded Catholic public charter school, which triggered a high-profile legal battle to decide whether public funds can be used to create religious schools — setting up a major test to the First Amendment’s establishment clause.

The 4-4 decision, which Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from, maintains a lower-court order that effectively blocks the school’s opening, for now.