The FFRF Action Fund is calling attention to two bills steamrolling their way through the Texas Legislature: Senate Bills 10 and 11.
SB 10 would require every public school classroom to display a 16-by-20-inch version of the Ten Commandments “legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom” — ensuring that no child escapes the inherently religious message. By literally elevating the Ten Commandments beyond a biblical document and isolating it as a stand-alone display, this mandate sends a clear signal of state endorsement of religion, undermining the secular purpose of public education.
The Texas Senate has voted 20-11 along party lines to pass this bill despite its clear unconstitutionality. It must still be passed by the Texas House of Representatives.
More than 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the Supreme Court overturned a similar law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms. In overturning the law, the court held that posting the “religious texts on the wall serves no such educational function.” The court further held that while positing the decalogue could be “desirable … as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.”
SB 11 would compound this religious overreach by requiring prayer and bible readings in public schools, disregarding more than half a century of clear legal precedent that safeguard the religious freedom of students, regardless of their beliefs or lack thereof. The bill has not yet passed the Texas Senate.
“Forcing kids to sit under a state-sponsored religious message every day violates their First Amendment rights and bullies them into religious submission,” says FFRF Action Fund President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Public schools belong to all students, not just those who subscribe to one particular religion.”
Texas lawmakers may hope that the current U.S. Supreme Court will ignore precedent, but the Freedom From Religion Foundation is prepared to challenge this blatant violation in court once again. FFRF is part of the coalition suing over a nearly identical, unconstitutional Ten Commandments bill passed last year in Louisiana. FFRF has previously warned that SB 10 tramples the First Amendment. Now, with SB 11 moving alongside it, the FFRF Action Fund urges our Texas advocates and allies to speak out once more.
The FFRF Action Fund stands ready to defend the constitutional separation of state and church — and the rights of every student in Texas.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.