For Republican officials eager to impose the Ten Commandments on public school students, it’s been a difficult summer. In June, for example, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a Louisiana law from taking effect, unanimously ruling that the state-sponsored-religion law was “facially unconstitutional.”
In early August, a federal judge similarly issued a preliminary injunction against an Arkansas law on Ten Commandments displays in schools.
Now, Texas has joined the club. The Associated Press reported:
Texas cannot require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge said Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state’s new requirement, making it the third such state law to be blocked by a court. A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders sought a preliminary injunction against the law, which goes into effect on Sept. 1.
The ruling was issued by U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery, who wrote: “Even though the Ten Commandments would not be affirmatively taught, the captive audience of students likely would have questions, which teachers would feel compelled to answer. That is what they do.”
His 55-page ruling began with quoting the First Amendment and ended with “Amen.”
Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which helped bring the case, said in a statement: “Today’s decision will ensure that Texas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion. It sends a third strong and resounding message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.”
For those just joining us, it’s worth appreciating why policies like these are legal, political and theological messes.
For example, Protestants, Jews and Catholics each honor the Commandments, but the different faith traditions number and word the Decalogue in different ways. It’s not the job of politicians in state government to choose which version, if any, deserves an official endorsement to be imposed on public school children.
The legal dimension to this is every bit as jarring. Indeed, as regular readers might recall, when officials in Kentucky approved a very similar law nearly a half-century ago, the Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that Ten Commandments displays in public schools were unconstitutional.
The Decalogue, the justices ruled in Stone v. Graham, is “undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths” and displaying them “serves no … educational function.”
So why would Republicans in several states take a step that the Supreme Court has already rejected? It’s probably because they’re confident that the newly politicized high court and its dominant far-right majority will simply overturn the Stone precedent, doing fresh harm to the wall that’s supposed to separate church and state in this country.
These GOP officials are almost certainly aware of the First Amendment, just as they’re almost certainly aware of the Supreme Court precedent that says they cannot legally do what they’re trying to do.
But since the high court has moved sharply to the right over the course of the last 45 years, GOP officials in Texas and others are counting on Republican-appointed justices to clear the way for more government-imposed religion in public schools. Watch this space.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
