A copy of the Ten Commandments in stone hangs on a building next to the Pickens County Courthouse in Jasper, Ga., in October. The inspiration for Sen. Phil King’s bill is the 2022 Supreme Court case Kennedy v. Bremerton about a coach’s prayers. Our state senators recently emerged from their legislative chamber with a new mandate for public schools: That every single one of their classrooms display a poster of the Ten Commandments large enough to be legible to anyone in the room. The bill by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, could become law if the House also gives its blessing. The idea, according to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, is to make students better Texans by bringing the commandments to schools. The U.S. Supreme Court explicitly banned displays of the Ten Commandments in public classrooms in 1980 because they were “plainly religious in nature.” However, legislators have been emboldened by the new conservative majority of the court, which last year tossed the legal test under which many prior First Amendment cases were decided, including the case involving the Ten Commandments in schools. In an analysis of his bill, King stated matter-of-factly that the 1980 case no longer applies. It’s a […]
