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Proponents hope to make Ten Commandments next Supreme Court test of religion in schools

Proponents hope to make Ten Commandments next Supreme Court test of religion in schools

The Hill6 days ago
State laws requiring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms keep losing in court, but that won't matter if they win at the highest court in the land.
Outside advocates believe supporters of laws in Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas are actively trying to get the cases before the Supreme Court. In the meantime, however, those supporters are consistently suffering legal losses, including in some of the most conservative courts in the country.
Lawsuits have challenged the laws, which use similar language to mandate posters of the Ten Commandments, on the grounds that they violate students' and parents' First Amendment rights. But supporters believe this is a Supreme Court that will see them differently.
'I don't think anybody is surprised that these policies, these laws in the states that seek to put the Ten Commandments back in schools, have been challenged in court. They're making their way through the proper channels, and we still are very confident that at the end of the day, when these cases get to the Supreme Court, that they're going to uphold them based on the new history-and-tradition test,' said Matt Krause, of counsel with the First Liberty Institute.
The so-called Lemon test that was previously used to determine whether a measure violated the Establishment Clause was undone in the high court's 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District decision, which determined a public school football coach's First Amendment rights were violated after he was suspended for praying on fields after games.
'I think once they threw out the Lemon test and instituted this history-and-tradition test, there's really no way for this — this matter that was decided under the Lemon test — to be fully resolved without the Supreme Court speaking on it, and so they've given us the history-and-tradition test, but it hasn't been fleshed out necessarily in the last several years,' Krause said.
'This Ten Commandments case, I think, helps give the justices the opportunity to provide even more of a framework of what they started in Kennedy,' he added.
When the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, considered perhaps the most conservative such court in the country, ruled last month that Louisiana's Ten Commandments law is unconstitutional, it made a point to note 'it is the Supreme Court's 'prerogative alone to overrule one of its precedents.''
But opponents of the laws say it is not a done deal the Supreme Court would side with them, let alone even decide to take up the cases.
'The problem is, I just don't think the court itself — this court — would be friendly to a claim that it's permissible to post the Ten Commandments in the public schools. In other words, I think [proponents] are operating on a misconception,' said Bob Tuttle, professor of law and religion at the George Washington University Law School.
'So the people that won the case in Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District made a big point of going around and telling the school districts that all kinds of things had changed in the law now, and they were free to bring religion back into public schools, and that is not what the case stood for at all,' Tuttle added.
The 6-3 majority conservative justices have tended to side with right-wing concerns on religion and education, including this term when they ruled along ideological lines in favor of parents who sought to remove their children from instruction that included LGBTQ-themed books.
But the high court also rejected the nation's first openly religious charter school in a 4-4 decision after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself.
'I don't think the Supreme Court is going to see this, and if they did see it, they would be forced to make a choice. I mean, they would be forced to really confront radical change in Establishment Clause law affecting the teaching in schools, and they have not done that,' Tuttle said.
Others argue there have been signs throughout the whole process that Republicans were aiming to create a more friendly court to push this sort of legislation through.
Emily Witt, senior communication and media strategist for Texas Freedom Network, pointed to state lawmakers rejecting all amendments to the Ten Commandments legislation besides one where the state attorney general would have to represent school districts if the law was challenged.
'I think that says that they are expecting to be that this bill will result in a lawsuit, which is a misuse of taxpayer funds, and also says, you know, that you're trying to pass something that is not constitutional,' Witt said.
'In this case, from our perspective, there's been a decades-long strategy on the right to stack the courts, to pass legislation that is going to have to go through a judicial process because it really tests the boundaries of the Constitution, and so that that is a big worry for us, that this could go to the Supreme Court, and unfortunately … [it] could rule in a way that, from our perspective, does not respect our Constitution,' she added.
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Trump's religious rhetoric clashes with Canada's secular politics
Trump's religious rhetoric clashes with Canada's secular politics

San Francisco Chronicle​

time11 minutes ago

  • San Francisco Chronicle​

Trump's religious rhetoric clashes with Canada's secular politics

MONTREAL (AP) — Throughout his new term, starting with his inaugural address, President Donald Trump has said he was 'saved by God' to make America great again. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney rarely evokes religion in public; his victory speech in April never used the word God. 'Canada forever. Vive le Canada,' he ended. As Canada and the U.S. now skirmish over Trump's tariff threats and occasional bullying, the leaders' rhetoric reflects a striking difference between their nations. Religion plays a far more subdued role in the public sphere in Canada than in its southern neighbor. Trump posed in front of a vandalized Episcopal parish house gripping a Bible. He invites pastors to the Oval Office to pray with him. His ally, House Speaker Mike Johnson, says the best way to understand his own world view is to read the Bible. Such high-level religion-themed displays would be unlikely and almost certainly unpopular in Canada, where Carney — like his recent predecessors — generally avoids public discussion of his faith. (He is a Catholic who supports abortion rights.) There are broader differences as well. The rate of regular church attendance in Canada is far lower than in the U.S. Evangelical Christians have nowhere near the political clout in Canada that they have south of the border. There is no major campaign in Canada to post the Ten Commandments in public schools or to enact sweeping abortion bans. Kevin Kee, a professor and former dean at the University of Ottawa, has written about the contrasting religious landscapes of the U.S. and Canada, exploring the rise of American evangelist Billy Graham to become a confidant of numerous U.S. presidents. Christianity, Kee said, has not permeated modern Canadian politics to that extent. 'We have a political leadership that keeps its religion quiet,' Kee said. 'To make that kind of declaration in Canada is to create an us/them situation. There's no easy way to keep everybody happy, so people keep it quiet.' A dramatic loss of Catholic power in Quebec The mostly French-speaking province of Quebec provides a distinctive example of Canada's tilt toward secularism. The Catholic Church was Quebec's dominant force through most of its history, with sweeping influence over schools, health care and politics. That changed dramatically in the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, when the provincial government took control of education and health care as part of a broader campaign to reduce the church's power. The rate of regular church attendance among Quebec's Catholics plummeted from one of the highest in Canada to the one of the lowest. Among religiously devout Canadians, in Quebec and other provinces, some are candid about feeling marginalized in a largely secular country. 'I feel isolated because our traditional Christian views are seen as old-fashioned or not moving with the times,' said Mégane Arès-Dubé, 22, after she and her husband attended a service at a conservative Reformed Baptist church in Saint Jerome, about 30 miles (nearly 50 kilometers) north of Montreal. 'Contrary to the U.S., where Christians are more represented in elected officials, Christians are really not represented in Canada,' she added. 'I pray that Canada wakes up.' The church's senior pastor, Pascal Denault, has mixed feelings about the Quiet Revolution's legacy. 'For many aspects of it, that was good,' he said. 'Before that, it was mainly the Catholic clergy that controlled many things in the province, so we didn't have religious freedom.' Nonetheless, Denault wishes for a more positive public view of religion in Canada. 'Sometimes, secularism becomes a religion in itself, and it wants to shut up any religious speech in the public sphere,' he said. 'What we hope for is that the government will recognize that religion is not an enemy to fight, but it's more a positive force to encourage.' Denault recently hosted a podcast episode focusing on Trump; he later shared some thoughts about the president. 'We tend to think that Trump is more using Christianity as a tool for his influence, rather than being a genuine Christian,' he said. 'But Christians are, I think, appreciative of some of his stances on different things.' Trump's religion-related tactics — such as posing with the Bible in his hands — wouldn't go over well with Canadians, Denault said. 'They'd see that as something wrongful. The public servant should not identify with a specific religion,' Denault said. 'I don't think most Canadians would vote for that type of politician.' Repurposed church buildings abound in Montreal In the Montreal neighborhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the skyline is dotted with crosses atop steeples, but many of those churches are unused or repurposed. For decades, factory and port workers worshipped at Saint-Mathias-Apotre Church. Today it's a restaurant that serves affordable meals daily for more than 600 residents. The manager of Le Chic Resto Pop, Marc-Andre Simard, grew up Catholic and now, like many of his staff, identifies as religiously unaffiliated. But he still tries to honor some core values of Catholicism at the nonprofit restaurant, which retains the church's original wooden doors and even its confessional booths. 'There's still space to be together, to have some sort of communion, but it's around food, not around faith.' Simard said during a lunch break, sitting near what used to be the altar of the former church. Simard says the extent to which the Catholic Church controlled so much of public life in Quebec should serve as a cautionary tale for the U.S. 'We went through what the United States are going through right now,' he said. Elsewhere in Montreal, a building that once housed a Catholic convent now often accommodates meetings of the Quebec Humanist Association. The group's co-founder, Michel Virard, said French Canadians 'know firsthand what it was to have a clergy nosing in their affairs.' Now, Virard says, 'There is no 'excluding religious voice' in Canada, merely attempts at excluding clergy from manipulating the state power levers and using taxpayers' money to promote a particular religious viewpoint.' History reveals why role of religion is so different in U.S. and Canada Why are Canada and the U.S., two neighbors which share so many cultural traditions and priorities, so different regarding religion's role in public life? According to academics who have pondered that question, their history provides some answers. The United States, at independence from Britain, chose not to have a dominant, federally established church. In Canada, meanwhile, the Catholic Church was dominant in Quebec, and the Church of England — eventually named the Anglican Church of Canada — was powerful elsewhere. Professor Darren Dochuk, a Canadian who teaches history at University of Notre Dame in Indiana, says the 'disestablishment' of religion in the U.S. 'made religious life all the more dynamic.' 'This is a country in which free faith communities have been allowed to compete in the marketplace for their share,' he said. 'In the 20th century, you had a plethora of religious groups across the spectrum who all competed voraciously for access to power,' he said. 'More recently, the evangelicals are really dominating that. … Religious conservatives are imposing their will on Washington.' There's been no equivalent faith-based surge in Canada, said Dochuk, suggesting that Canada's secularization produced 'precipitous decline in the power of religion as a major operator in politics.' Carmen Celestini, professor of religious studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, said that even when Canadian politicians do opt for faith-based outreach, they often take a multicultural approach — for example, visiting Sikh, Hindu and Jewish houses of worship, as well as Christian churches. Trump's talk about Canada becoming the 51st state fueled a greater sense of national unity among most Canadians, and undermined the relatively small portion of them who identify as Christian nationalists, Celestini said. 'Canada came together more as a nation, not sort of seeing differences with each other, but seeing each other as Canadians and being proud of our sovereignty and who we are as a nation,' she said. 'The concern that Canadians have, when we look at what's happening in America, is that we don't want that to happen here. '

Trump coveted Canada as 51st state. Most Canadians differ with him on religion's role in public life
Trump coveted Canada as 51st state. Most Canadians differ with him on religion's role in public life

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Trump coveted Canada as 51st state. Most Canadians differ with him on religion's role in public life

MONTREAL (AP) — Throughout his new term, starting with his inaugural address, President Donald Trump has said he was 'saved by God' to make America great again. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney rarely evokes religion in public; his victory speech in April never used the word God. 'Canada forever. Vive le Canada,' he ended. As Canada and the U.S. now skirmish over Trump's tariff threats and occasional bullying, the leaders' rhetoric reflects a striking difference between their nations. Religion plays a far more subdued role in the public sphere in Canada than in its southern neighbor. Trump posed in front of a vandalized Episcopal parish house gripping a Bible. He invites pastors to the Oval Office to pray with him. His ally, House Speaker Mike Johnson, says the best way to understand his own world view is to read the Bible. Such high-level religion-themed displays would be unlikely and almost certainly unpopular in Canada, where Carney — like his recent predecessors — generally avoids public discussion of his faith. (He is a Catholic who supports abortion rights.) There are broader differences as well. The rate of regular church attendance in Canada is far lower than in the U.S. Evangelical Christians have nowhere near the political clout in Canada that they have south of the border. There is no major campaign in Canada to post the Ten Commandments in public schools or to enact sweeping abortion bans. Kevin Kee, a professor and former dean at the University of Ottawa, has written about the contrasting religious landscapes of the U.S. and Canada, exploring the rise of American evangelist Billy Graham to become a confidant of numerous U.S. presidents. Christianity, Kee said, has not permeated modern Canadian politics to that extent. 'We have a political leadership that keeps its religion quiet,' Kee said. 'To make that kind of declaration in Canada is to create an us/them situation. There's no easy way to keep everybody happy, so people keep it quiet.' A dramatic loss of Catholic power in Quebec The mostly French-speaking province of Quebec provides a distinctive example of Canada's tilt toward secularism. The Catholic Church was Quebec's dominant force through most of its history, with sweeping influence over schools, health care and politics. That changed dramatically in the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, when the provincial government took control of education and health care as part of a broader campaign to reduce the church's power. The rate of regular church attendance among Quebec's Catholics plummeted from one of the highest in Canada to the one of the lowest. Among religiously devout Canadians, in Quebec and other provinces, some are candid about feeling marginalized in a largely secular country. 'I feel isolated because our traditional Christian views are seen as old-fashioned or not moving with the times,' said Mégane Arès-Dubé, 22, after she and her husband attended a service at a conservative Reformed Baptist church in Saint Jerome, about 30 miles (nearly 50 kilometers) north of Montreal. 'Contrary to the U.S., where Christians are more represented in elected officials, Christians are really not represented in Canada,' she added. 'I pray that Canada wakes up.' The church's senior pastor, Pascal Denault, has mixed feelings about the Quiet Revolution's legacy. 'For many aspects of it, that was good,' he said. 'Before that, it was mainly the Catholic clergy that controlled many things in the province, so we didn't have religious freedom.' Nonetheless, Denault wishes for a more positive public view of religion in Canada. 'Sometimes, secularism becomes a religion in itself, and it wants to shut up any religious speech in the public sphere,' he said. 'What we hope for is that the government will recognize that religion is not an enemy to fight, but it's more a positive force to encourage.' Denault recently hosted a podcast episode focusing on Trump; he later shared some thoughts about the president. 'We tend to think that Trump is more using Christianity as a tool for his influence, rather than being a genuine Christian,' he said. 'But Christians are, I think, appreciative of some of his stances on different things.' Trump's religion-related tactics — such as posing with the Bible in his hands — wouldn't go over well with Canadians, Denault said. 'They'd see that as something wrongful. The public servant should not identify with a specific religion,' Denault said. 'I don't think most Canadians would vote for that type of politician.' Repurposed church buildings abound in Montreal In the Montreal neighborhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the skyline is dotted with crosses atop steeples, but many of those churches are unused or repurposed. For decades, factory and port workers worshipped at Saint-Mathias-Apotre Church. Today it's a restaurant that serves affordable meals daily for more than 600 residents. The manager of Le Chic Resto Pop, Marc-Andre Simard, grew up Catholic and now, like many of his staff, identifies as religiously unaffiliated. But he still tries to honor some core values of Catholicism at the nonprofit restaurant, which retains the church's original wooden doors and even its confessional booths. 'There's still space to be together, to have some sort of communion, but it's around food, not around faith.' Simard said during a lunch break, sitting near what used to be the altar of the former church. Simard says the extent to which the Catholic Church controlled so much of public life in Quebec should serve as a cautionary tale for the U.S. 'We went through what the United States are going through right now,' he said. Elsewhere in Montreal, a building that once housed a Catholic convent now often accommodates meetings of the Quebec Humanist Association. The group's co-founder, Michel Virard, said French Canadians 'know firsthand what it was to have a clergy nosing in their affairs.' Now, Virard says, 'There is no 'excluding religious voice' in Canada, merely attempts at excluding clergy from manipulating the state power levers and using taxpayers' money to promote a particular religious viewpoint.' History reveals why role of religion is so different in U.S. and Canada Why are Canada and the U.S., two neighbors which share so many cultural traditions and priorities, so different regarding religion's role in public life? According to academics who have pondered that question, their history provides some answers. The United States, at independence from Britain, chose not to have a dominant, federally established church. In Canada, meanwhile, the Catholic Church was dominant in Quebec, and the Church of England — eventually named the Anglican Church of Canada — was powerful elsewhere. Professor Darren Dochuk, a Canadian who teaches history at University of Notre Dame in Indiana, says the 'disestablishment' of religion in the U.S. 'made religious life all the more dynamic.' 'This is a country in which free faith communities have been allowed to compete in the marketplace for their share,' he said. 'In the 20th century, you had a plethora of religious groups across the spectrum who all competed voraciously for access to power,' he said. 'More recently, the evangelicals are really dominating that. … Religious conservatives are imposing their will on Washington.' There's been no equivalent faith-based surge in Canada, said Dochuk, suggesting that Canada's secularization produced 'precipitous decline in the power of religion as a major operator in politics.' Carmen Celestini, professor of religious studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, said that even when Canadian politicians do opt for faith-based outreach, they often take a multicultural approach — for example, visiting Sikh, Hindu and Jewish houses of worship, as well as Christian churches. Trump's talk about Canada becoming the 51st state fueled a greater sense of national unity among most Canadians, and undermined the relatively small portion of them who identify as Christian nationalists, Celestini said. 'Canada came together more as a nation, not sort of seeing differences with each other, but seeing each other as Canadians and being proud of our sovereignty and who we are as a nation,' she said. 'The concern that Canadians have, when we look at what's happening in America, is that we don't want that to happen here. ' ___ Crary, who reported from New York, was the AP's Canada bureau chief from 1995-99. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Solve the daily Crossword

Letters to the Editor: Readers offer their own grades for Trump's first six months
Letters to the Editor: Readers offer their own grades for Trump's first six months

Los Angeles Times

time2 hours ago

  • Los Angeles Times

Letters to the Editor: Readers offer their own grades for Trump's first six months

To the editor: Going along with contributing writer Josh Hammer's A-average assessment ('Report card on Trump's first six months shows a lot of wins, a little room for growth,' July 25), I offer these additions: Ensuring the increase of economic inequality in this country: A+. With President Trump's manipulation of tariffs and taxes, American billionaires will get even richer and average citizens will struggle to buy groceries and pay for medical care, never mind homes. Keeping our international allies guessing: A+. Will we have any allies left in three years? Creating havoc and instability in cities with a large immigrant population: A+. So what if around 70% of those swept up in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids have no criminal convictions? At least we got the other 30%. Denigrating as many opposition voices as possible: A+. Attack universities, defund public broadcasting, prohibit diversity, equity and inclusion, restrict voting rights, ban books, sue journalists and disable support for education at all levels. Disregard for future generations and the effects of climate change: A+. Roll back restrictions on fossil fuel and disable support for renewable energy resources. Decrease staff protecting our national parks. Ruling with intimidation and threats: A+. Exhibit A: Jan. 6, 2021. Exhibit B: Some Republican lawmakers are OK with Exhibit A. Breaking with American traditions and founding principles: A+. Who needs three branches of government anyway when you have a genius at the reins? Constitution? Oh, that old thing? Normalizing unethical behavior, name-calling and blatant lying coming from the president of the United States: A+++. Gotta give it to him: He really is a genius at this. Laura Owen, Santa Monica .. To the editor: Economy: The stock market's up, but more than 60,000 tech workers have been laid off, tourism's down $29 billion and tariffs are crushing small businesses. 'Historic' trade deals are repairs covered in flattery for Trump's own mess. Grade: D. Domestic policy: His talking points don't make America safer, healthier or smarter. Grade: C-. Immigration: Deportations are down, but cruelty is up — snatching citizens, legal residents and people already in the system. Nothing about this makes us safer. Grade: F. Law: Those 'ludicrous' injunctions from lower courts are more reasoned than the Supreme Court's shadow docket rulings. Grade: C. Foreign policy: Aiding ethnic cleansing in Gaza isn't 'rewarding friends.' Delaying Iran's program (maybe only by months) isn't safety. Grade: C. Charla Myers, Santa Monica .. To the editor: On my grading scale, Trump gets an F for empathy, an F for honesty and an F for just plain human decency. And clearly, he does not play well with others. Joyce Altschule-Pisarev, Long Beach

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