When Louisiana state Rep. Kathy Edmonston introduced a bill last year that requires public K-12 schools to display the Ten Commandments, she knew it might face legal challenges.
The bill, which was signed in 2024, is facing a complicated lawsuit. Edmonston said she thinks it might reach the Supreme Court. But she also introduced the legislation with some assurance about the political and legal landscape.
“We felt the climate was a little more open for it than it had been in the past,” Edmonston told NOTUS. “We had always wanted to do it.”
The law in Louisiana is currently blocked in the school districts that filed an injunction, and it is now headed to the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for the second time. In June, the court decided the bill violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, but lawmakers insist they see a legal path around that. And it’s not just Louisiana where conservatives feel emboldened to fuse together religion and education.
Trending
A year after Louisiana’s bill was signed by the governor, Arkansas passed its own version, followed by Texas. NOTUS reviewed the text of the bills passed in each of those states, and while they have some variation, the bills were nearly identical at their core.
For decades, legal precedent strictly separated church and public institutions. Now, the lawmakers who support this type of legislation are making a case that these are commonsense proposals that reflect American public opinion.
Do Republicans support the push for more religious influence in schools?
“Yes,” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, pointing to his past support of a Ten Commandment monument on the Texas state Capitol grounds more than a decade ago.
Why are they pushing for this now?
“Maybe because they believe in God,” Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy said in response to a question from NOTUS.
The legislation in Arkansas has also hit legal roadblocks. But its governor is happy to defend it.
“In Arkansas, we do in fact believe that murder is wrong and stealing is bad. It is entirely appropriate to display the Ten Commandments - the basis of all Western law and morality - as a reminder to students, state employees, and every Arkansan who enters a government building,” said Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement to NOTUS.
In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham that to display the Ten Commandments in Kentucky classrooms, there must be a “secular legislative purpose.” What could change this time is how the courts receive that argument.
That is the premise that some conservatives are looking to challenge now. Edmonston told NOTUS that she first got the idea that the courts would be “friendly to this type of legislation” at the Pro-Family Legislative Conference hosted by WallBuilders, an activist organization that advocates for more Christian influence in legislation.
WallBuilders, which is listed by the White House as a participating organization in its “America Prays” initiative, declined to comment. But in its “2024 Impact Report,” the organization wrote about the passage of Louisiana’s law as an accomplishment from their 2023 conference.
“This bill was inspired by a draft we shared at our annual conference last year, where we also produced a comprehensive support brief on the Ten Commandments historical significance steeped in America’s traditions,” WallBuilders wrote.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on broader pushes to include the Ten Commandments in schools.
PERSPECTIVES: What is one thing you would fix about American higher education?
Some conservatives are backing away from prioritizing religion in the classroom. Lindel Fields replaced Ryan Walters as Oklahoma’s state superintendent in early October. But Walters left behind a pending lawsuit against his attempted Bible mandate, which would require a Bible in every classroom. Fields decided not to prioritize defending the initiative or spending the money to do so.
“I have no plans to distribute Bibles or a Biblical character education curriculum in classrooms,” Fields said in a statement last Wednesday.
It was a decision that was welcome to at least one of the state’s senators. Asked by NOTUS for his reaction to Fields’ announcement, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said he had worries about it anyway.
“I’ve had a concern about the Bible being mandated. I’m a strong Christian,” Mullin said. “I don’t want someone who hasn’t studied the Bible to be teaching the Bible.”
In the meantime, the battle over this type of legislation will play out in the courts. In Louisiana, the lawsuit will head to a highly conservative appeals court to be reviewed “en banc” by all 17 of its judges — 12 of whom were appointed by Republican presidents.
Author
