Latest news with #10Commandments
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Civil rights groups to sue Texas over Ten Commandments bill
AUSTIN (KXAN) — The ACLU and other civil rights groups announced plans Thursday to challenge a newly passed Texas bill requiring public schools display a copy of the Ten Commandments in each classroom, according to press releases. That bill, Senate Bill 10, passed in the Texas House of Representatives on May 25 with an amendment, as KXAN previously reported. The Senate concurred with the House's changes on May 28. The final bill sent to Governor Greg Abbott clarified that Texas, not its school boards, will be responsible for any legal challenges. Abbott has yet to sign the bill into law, but he said that he would sign it in a May 1 social media post. The ACLU will be joined in its challenge by Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. SB 10 author Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, argued in his statement of intent that the law could survive a legal challenge under the US Supreme Court's (SCOTUS) 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. Read more: What the Supreme Court's football coach ruling means for schools and prayer 'For 200 years, the Ten Commandments were displayed in public buildings and classrooms across America,' wrote King in his bill analysis. 'The Court has … provided a test that considers whether a governmental display of religious content comports with America's history and tradition. Now that the legal landscape has changed, it is time for Texas to pass SB 10 and restore the history and tradition of the Ten Commandments in our state and our nation.' ACLU Staff Attorney Chloe Kempf said that SCOTUS's ruling in Stone v. Graham, which struck down a similar Kentucky law, still applies. 'The Supreme Court has never overruled it. And in fact, in more recent years, including in the Kennedy case, the Supreme Court has affirmed that there is a special constitutional concern when we are indoctrinating students in school with religious messages,' she said. 'The Kennedy case … really has no relationship to a bill that requires a religious text to be posted in schools.' A similar law in Louisiana was to take effect in 2025, but was blocked by a US District Court ruling. It is currently before a US Fifth Circuit Appeals Court. That law did not require school districts to fund the posters with taxpayer money. SB 10 allows such an expense but doesn't require it. 'The result in either case is the same — you have children being religiously coerced in schools, and you have the government favoring a very specific religious translation above all others. So I would say the outcome is unconstitutional in either way,' Kempf said. SB 10 requires schools use specific text for their Ten Commandments posters, which Kempf identified as an additional problem with it. 'It's a Protestant translation … we heard from a lot of concerned Texas families that even in their religious traditions … that do recognize the 10 Commandments, their versions are meaningfully different than the version that the Texas Legislature chose here,' she said. Earlier in the legislative session, 166 faith leaders in Texas signed a letter of opposition against SB 10. 'The responsibility for religious education belongs to families, houses of worship, and other religious institutions — not the government,' the letter reads. 'The government oversteps its authority when it dictates an official state-approved version of any religious text.' In fact, the biblical books of Exodus and Deuteronomy contain a total of three different versions of the Ten Commandments. These passages also vary by religion and translation: The King James Version (KJV) of Exodus 20:13 reads, 'thou shall not kill,' while the New International Version of the same verse reads 'you shall not murder.' SB 10's version is also found on a monument outside the Texas State Capitol. A legal challenge over that monument went before the US Supreme Court in 2005, with SCOTUS ruling in Texas' favor, allowing the monument to remain as it constituted a passive display. 'The placement of the Ten Commandments monument on the Texas State Capitol grounds is a far more passive use of those texts than was the case in Stone, where the text confronted elementary school students every day,' wrote former Justice William Rehnquist in the court's opinion. The monument's and SB 10's take on the Ten Commandments appear to be cut-down from the King James Version of the Christian Bible, removing some text and changing 'thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife … nor his ox, nor his ass,…' to 'thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife … nor his cattle, … .' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CNN
27-05-2025
- General
- CNN
‘This bill is not only unconstitutional, un-American' : State rep. on TX bill to put 10 Commandments in classrooms
Texas State Representative James Talarico tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer why he's opposing a GOP led effort to post a copy of the 10 Commandments in Texas classrooms.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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 Sunday 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.' 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 automatically affirmed a lower court ruling declaring it unconstitutional. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Ten Commandments, ‘In God We Trust' in classrooms is now Arkansas law
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law this week making religious displays in classrooms state law. The governor signed Senate Bill 433, which mandates the display of the Ten Commandments and 'In God We Trust' in Arkansas classrooms and public buildings maintained or operated with taxpayer funds. Bill heads to governor's desk to put 10 Commandments in Arkansas classrooms Funds for the posters must be acquired through private donations, or the posters may be donated. Posters have to meet the minimum size requirement in the law of 11 by 14 inches for 'In God We Trust' and 16 by 20 inches for the Ten Commandments. The law mandates the specific language of the commandments displayed, using phrasing typical in older English translations of the Bible, such as 'Thou shalt.' The Ten Commandments appear three times in the Bible, all in the Old Testament. The bill received broad support in both chambers, with a 27-4 Senate vote and a 71-20 vote in the House. Sen. Jim Dotson (R-Bentonville) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R-Heber Springs) were the bill's primary sponsors, with 13 cosponsors. Bill to remove excise tax on soft drinks, impact Medicaid funding, fails in House Louisiana passed a similar law in 2024, but a federal judge blocked it before it was implemented, citing its 'overtly religious' nature. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Talks underway to make deadly Foley intersection safer
FOLEY, Ala. (WKRG) — Talks are underway about transferring part of County Road 65 around Airport Road to the City of Foley. Mobile Fire Service driver dies in motorcycle crash Sunday night, two teenagers became the latest victims of a deadly crash near the intersection. The two teens were on an electric scooter when they were hit from behind by the driver of a pickup truck. According to the Foley Police Department, eight wrecks have been reported along this stretch of road in the last year. City administrator Mike Thompson said Foley already has some ideas of how to improve safety in the area. 'We have thought about potentially whether that intersection needs to be a four-way stop just to slow traffic down, maybe slow the speed limit some, possibly lighting up that intersection with more street lights,' Thompson said. 'We've thought about even putting a crosswalk out there.' Before any of that can happen, the county commission will have to vote to approve the transfer of a section of County Road 65 to the city. Mobile residents react to 10 Commandments bill, possibly allowing them in schools The city council will then have to vote to accept that transfer, and then improvements like those stop signs and lower speed limits could be implemented fairly quickly. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
