Texas set to require display of Ten Commandments in state schools
Texas is preparing to force schools to display The Ten Commandments, in a victory for hardline Christian activists.
The 'Ten Commandments' bill easily passed the state's Republican-held House of Representatives on Friday and must return to the state Senate for final approval before send-off to Governor Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign the legislation into law.
Under the proposal, a 20-inch tall 'durable poster or framed copy' of the biblical laws would be displayed in a 'conspicuous place' in every primary and secondary school classroom across the state.
The bill is likely to face fierce challenges under the US Constitution's first amendment – which expressly forbids establishment of a state religion – and has been dubbed a 'flagrant disregard for the separation of church and state' by the progressive American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Nevertheless, Dan Patrick, Texas's lieutenant governor, said passing the bill was a priority for this year's legislative session.
The US state of Louisiana was the first to mandate the presence of The Ten Commandments in schools in 2024, and the US state of Arkansas enacted a similar law in April.
Mr Patrick wrote at the time on X that 'Texas WOULD have been and SHOULD have been the first state in the nation to put the 10 Commandments back in our schools', referencing a previous bill that had failed.
A federal judge later struck down Louisiana's law as 'unconstitutional on its face', which the state is appealing.
Phil King, a Republican state senator and vocal advocate for Christian causes who introduced this iteration of Texas's bill, wrote on X: 'It's time to return the 10 Commandments to our classrooms where they were displayed for over 200 years.
'Few documents in the history of Western civilization and in American history have had a larger impact on our moral and legal code, and our culture, than the 10 Commandments.'
It's time to return the 10 Commandments to our classrooms where they were displayed for over 200 years. Few documents in the history of Western civilization and in American history have had a larger impact on our moral and legal code, and our culture, than the 10 Commandments. pic.twitter.com/VXBMllumOk
— Phil King (@PhilKingTX) March 20, 2025
Placing The Ten Commandments in schools has long been a goal of hardline Christian groups, who have argued the institutions have become hotbeds of secularism and immorality.
They have been backed for years by the more fringe factions of the Republican Party, but the idea has recently become more mainstream.
Donald Trump has previously thrown his support behind displaying The Ten Commandments, writing on Truth Social in 2024: 'I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT – HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???
'THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY. BRING BACK TTC!!! MAGA2024.'
However, it is unclear how the legislation will be enforced, and a committee analysis of the state Senate's version of the bill says it 'does not expressly create a criminal offence'.
The Texas and Louisiana bills are nearly identical to a 1978 law in the US state of Kentucky which mandated the display of The Ten Commandments and was two years later ruled unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in the case of Stone v Graham.
Texas also passed a separate piece of legislation last week allowing for a period of prayer or religious study during the school day.
However, supporters of increased religion in schools were dealt a setback on Thursday after the US Supreme Court deadlocked on the US state of Oklahoma's first-ever taxpayer-funded religious charter school, which meant a lower court ruling which declared it unconstitutional was affirmed.
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