States Are Trying To Force the Bible Into the Classroom
In June, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed a bill mandating that all public school classrooms display a poster of the Ten Commandments. Just over a week later, Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters declared that “every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom,” later telling PBS News Hour, “the separation of church and state appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution.”
Since 2023, four states have attempted to mandate or are considering legislation mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Arizona legislators actually passed a Ten Commandments mandate, but Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs ultimately vetoed the bill. In Utah, lawmakers passed a watered-down version of a bill that originally mandated classroom posters of the Ten Commandments but by the time it became law in March instead required the text be incorporated in classroom instruction.
Many critics insist that mandates forcing schools to display the Ten Commandments or teach from the Bible are obviously unconstitutional attempts to put religious instruction in public schools. Louisiana’s “law violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment and long standing Supreme Court precedent,” says Heather Weaver, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. “The separation of church and state means that the government can’t use our public schools to religiously indoctrinate or convert students.”
In July, a group of parents sued Louisiana, arguing that its law violates their own and their children’s First Amendment rights. The law “unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” their suit reads. “It substantially interferes with and burdens the right of parents to direct their children’s religious education and upbringing.”
But many lawmakers don’t seem concerned about potential legal challenges.
“Look, there are people
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