Texas is set to become the largest state in the nation to mandate that every public school classroom display a copy of the Ten Commandments, with advocates fearing a further erosion of church and state and the legislation’s sponsor making clear that’s a separation she doesn’t believe in.
While Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has not yet signed the measure, which comes as red states are increasingly seeking to inject Christianity into public education, he told lawmakers in early May to “get this bill to my desk. I’ll make it law.”
Under the legislation, beginning September 1, every school in Texas will be required to display a 16 inch by 20 inch poster of the Ten Commandments. While they won’t be required to buy them with district funds, they will be required to display them if donated.
The legislation also effectively creates an official state version of the Ten Commandments, because only one specific iteration meets the new statute: a King James Bible-derived list of “Thou shalt nots” that is used by many Baptists and evangelicals but not by a majority of Catholics, Jews, protestants or Eastern Orthodox Christians.
Critics argue the bill is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the federal government from creating a state religion.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas on Wednesday announced it would sue.
“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 wrote, calling the measure “religiously coercive.”
Supporters of the bill, meanwhile, appeal to a letter from Thomas Jefferson which seems to leave open the possibility of state regulation of religion, though so far, courts haven’t agreed: A similar bill in Louisiana was blocked in November after being ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.
The Texas bill is one of a broad array of public policy proposals pushed by an alliance of groups that seek a broader role for evangelical Christianity in public life. A prior state measure, passed in 2021, required schools to display “in God we Trust” placards in every classroom.
Neighboring Arkansas passed its own Ten Commandments bill in April.
In a nod to the legal risks, amendments to the Texas measure require the state attorney general, currently Republican Ken Paxton, to defend at state expense any school district sued over compliance.
This week, the Texas legislature also passed a bill permitting prayer in public schools and stripping language that forbids teachers from “encouraging” students to participate.
That measure also obligates the office of the state attorney general to help schools set up a prayer program, and — like the Ten Commandments bill — to defend any legal challenges to it at public expense.
During debates over passage, bill sponsor state Rep. Candy Noble insisted that it was not a religious measure but meant to instruct students about the historical importance she says the Ten Commandments hold in American democracy.
“This bill is about honoring our historical educational and judicial heritage with the discipline of the Ten Commandments,” Noble said in a Sunday exchange with Rep. James Talarico (D), a self-described evangelical who opposed the bill.
Over the past two months, Talarico and Noble’s verbal duels over the bill have served as an intra-evangelical debate over the role of Christianity in public life.
“We established that our founding fathers wanted a separation of church and state,” Talarico began in one April committee hearing, before Noble cut him off.
“I did not establish that,” she said. “I absolutely did not establish that. That’s a historical fact that I disagree with.”
In his opposition to the bill, Talarico repeatedly argued that displaying the Ten Commandments was itself a religious violation: a contradiction of St. Paul’s dictum in Romans that all the commandments could be “summed up in this sentence, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
He argued it was not neighborly to signal to Jews, Muslims, Hindus or members of other Christian denominations that they didn’t belong.
That’s a read Noble emphatically pushed back on. If these people were Americans, she said, “maybe it would make them curious about what made our forefathers tick. Maybe it will help them wonder ‘How can I treat others better? Maybe it will help them ask their parents questions on ‘Why should I be under your authority?’
“Maybe we can take that tack with it instead of the negative tack that you’re taking with it,” she added.
In debates over the bill, Noble repeatedly argued that “our classrooms are crying out for moral guidance,” though she went back and forth on whether teachers would be required to interpret the Ten Commandments for students.
In a viral moment from the debate, Talarico pressed her on why representatives were working over the weekend — the Jewish and Christian Sabbaths — in violation of the Fourth Commandment.
“Is that ironic or what?” Noble asked, before explaining the importance of God’s decision to take a day of rest, and contending that Talarico’s own opposition to the bill had pushed debate to the weekend.
“Do you think that members of the legislature should focus more on trying to follow the Ten Commandments rather than telling others to follow them?” Talarico asked.
“It is incumbent on all of us to follow God’s law,” Noble said. “And I think that we would be better off if we did.”
