The Republican-led Texas Senate has passed a bill requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms across the state.
Senate Bill 10 passed the chamber late Wednesday on a 20-11, party-line vote, following a debate about whether the bill is constitutional.
Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) made the Republican case for passage of SB 10, arguing the Ten Commandments constituted a critical document in the development of the United States.
"The Ten Commandments determined our laws, our ethics, our moral strengths and our unique identifications as Americans," Campbell said. "The Ten Commandments should be posted in every school room, unapologetically taught as a foundation of America. It is who we are. It is our history, and our students need to proudly learn them."
The bill goes next to the Texas House of Representatives. If it passes the House, is signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and becomes law, it's likely to face legal challenges.
Louisiana passed a similar law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms last year. A federal district court temporarily blocked the Louisiana law from taking effect.
Along those lines, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin) argued that the Texas bill is unconstitutional, violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. She acknowledged that most Texans are religious.
"But I would venture Texans do not want religion crammed down their throat by their government," Eckhardt said. "Texans don't even want their own religion crammed down their throat by their government."
Sen. Brent Hagenbuch (R-Denton) said it was important to recognize, as Eckhart said, that not all Texans come from a religious tradition based on the Ten Commandments.
"Christians are the majority pretty clearly," Hagenbuch said. "As Texans, the majority needs to look out for the minority, I understand, and be careful not to trample them. But we've gone too far there. We've gone so far that we're intimidated. And when we talk about the First Amendment, which we were talking about earlier, freedom of religion does not mean lack of religion."
Sen. Nathan Johnson (D-Dallas) read into the record a letter sent to all members of the Legislature by more than 160 faith leaders, urging lawmakers to vote against SB 10 on the grounds that it would trample religious liberty rather than protect it.
Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford), the author of SB 10, closed out the debate by arguing that Ten Commandments displays in schools were legal for most of U.S. history.
"In 1980, an errant Supreme Court, in a case that came not out of Texas but out of Kentucky, said that we could no longer do that," King said. He noted that in 2022, "A new Supreme Court corrected that error, and we are now able to do this again."
Copyright 2025 KUT 90.5