New Texas law requires Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms

Source: The Guardian/AP

Sat 21 Jun 2025 19.54 EDT


Texas will require all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments under a new law that will make the state the nation’s largest to attempt to impose such a mandate. The bill, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott, is expected to draw a legal challenge from critics who consider it an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state.

A similar law in Louisiana was blocked when a federal appeals court ruled Friday that it was unconstitutional. Arkansas also has a similar law that has been challenged in federal court. The Texas measure easily passed in the Republican-controlled state House and Senate in the legislative session that ended on 2 June.

“The focus of this bill is to look at what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially,” Republican state representative Candy Noble, a co-sponsor of the bill, said when it passed the House.

The Ten Commandments laws are among efforts, mainly in conservative-led states, to insert religion into public schools. Texas lawmakers also passed a bill that lets school districts provide students and staff a daily voluntary period of prayer or time to read a religious text during school hours.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/21/texas-ten-commandments-law