Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has pledged to pass a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school and college classrooms, days after a similar bill was passed in Louisiana.
In social media posts, Patrick criticized Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Texas) for killing a state Senate bill that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in schools. Phelan vowed Thursday to revive the bill.
“SB 1515 would restore this historic tradition of acknowledging American heritage and remind students across Texas of the importance of the Ten Commandments, a fundamental foundation of American and Texas law,” Patrick wrote to X. “Restoring the Ten Commandments to our schools was clearly not a priority for Dade Phelan.”
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Texas’ Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has promised to pass a bill that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. (Reuters/John Herskovitz)
This bill would require public elementary and middle schools in Texas to display the Ten Commandments in each classroom. Currently, they do not.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Phelan’s office.
Phelan and Patrick have been at odds since Patrick presided over the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this year.
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Workers remove a monument featuring the Ten Commandments that was placed outside an Ohio high school a few years ago. Louisiana became the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public school classrooms, after a bill signed by Republican Governor Jeff Landry. (AP Photo/Al Bearman/File)
“Texas could and should have been the first state in the nation to reinstate the Ten Commandments in schools,” Patrick wrote on X. “But Speaker Dade Phelan killed the bill by letting it languish in committee for a month and ensuring there was no time for a floor vote.”
This week, Louisiana became the first state to require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a law that the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights groups say they plan to challenge.
Professor, University of Notre Dame Law School Richard W. Garnettdirector of the school’s Church, State and Society program, said it’s likely several states will make efforts to emulate Louisiana.
“It remains to be seen whether these measures will be permitted,” he told Fox News Digital. “The Supreme Court’s principles have changed in some areas, but not all areas.”
Workers repaint a Ten Commandments sign along Interstate 71 on Election Day, Nov. 7, 2023, near Chenoweth, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Custer/File)
A key question for the Supreme Court will be whether an exhibit like the Ten Commandments has a “coercive effect” on children, given their age and the fact that it is set in a classroom, Garnett said.
He noted that opponents of such a law would likely point out that the United States is a religiously diverse nation, and that although its founding was inspired by the Christian faith of some, public schools are run by the government for a “pluralistic people.”
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In a joint statement opposing the Louisiana law, the ACLU and civil rights groups noted that religion is a private matter.
“The First Amendment promises us all the ability to determine for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, we will hold and practice, without government pressure,” the statement said. “Politicians do not have the right to impose their preferred religious doctrines on students and families in our public schools.”
