Texas is poised to enact legislation requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom, as Senate Bill 10 moves closer to final approval. The Texas House of Representatives approved the bill with a vote of 88 in favor and 49 against after two hours of debate, and it passed its third and final reading on Sunday by a vote of 82-46, according to Houston Public Media.
Senate Bill 10 now returns to the Texas Senate for concurrence, following a last-minute perfecting amendment the Senate participated in writing. Governor Greg Abbott has indicated he will sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk. In addition to Senate Bill 10, Abbott is also expected to sign a measure that allows school districts to provide students and staff a daily voluntary period of prayer or time to read a religious text, according to The Daily Beast.
Opponents of the bill argue that it infringes on the Constitution's separation of church and state and the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. "Critics, including some Christian and other faith leaders, argue that the Ten Commandments and prayer measures would infringe on the religious freedom of others, particularly students who do not identify with those principles, and that the state should not engage in religious proselytism," reported the Los Angeles Times.
Supporters of the bill contend that the Ten Commandments are foundational to the history and education of the United States. "The goal of this bill is to examine what is historically important for our nation from an educational and judicial perspective," said State Representative Candy Noble, a Republican and co-sponsor of Senate Bill 10.
Democratic lawmakers made several unsuccessful attempts to amend the bill, including proposals to allow individual school districts to opt in and to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in different languages. These amendments were defeated by the Republican majority. Democratic Representatives Vincent Perez and Jon Rosenthal proposed amendments that would have required the classroom display of Jewish and Catholic translations of the Ten Commandments alongside that of the Protestant King James Bible.
State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat who is Christian, expressed concern that the display of such religious text may feel exclusionary to non-Christian students. "When we allow teachers and principals, those in positions of power, to impose their religion on other people, especially children, we are undermining the freedom of religion that made this state and this country great, and it is a threat to religious and nonreligious people alike," Talarico said.
Produced with the assistance of a news-analysis system.
A letter signed by dozens of Christian and Jewish faith leaders opposing the bill noted that Texas has thousands of students of other faiths who might have no connection to the Ten Commandments, expressing concern about religious diversity in Texas. Several Democrats pointed out that roughly a third of Texans are neither Christian nor Jewish and do not consider the Ten Commandments foundational to their belief systems.
Legal challenges to the bill are anticipated. If signed into law, the measure would take effect on September 1, and may trigger a series of legal actions that could escalate to the Supreme Court.
Perez warned, "If we adopt the original version of this bill, legal challenges are inevitable, and taxpayers will bear the expense." Supporters argue that the bill is in line with recent Supreme Court decisions. "This monument and the words on it have already been approved and upheld by the Supreme Court in a 2005 case, so the wording won't need to be subject to a new court case objection," said Noble.
Opponents dispute this interpretation. Perez claimed Noble was incorrect in her interpretation of the US Supreme Court's ruling. "The Supreme Court has indeed addressed the Ten Commandments, but never once has it approved their mandatory display inside public-school classrooms. Quite the opposite. In Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law, precisely like this one because it mandated a clearly religious display in classrooms. That decision remains good law today," Perez argued.