The Ten Commandments In Schools? An Old Debate Is Renewed

In a narrow 9-8 ruling last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a 2025 Texas law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. Louisiana has a similar law. As these laws proliferate, so do age-old constitutional fault lines.

Does the Constitution allow or forbid government mandates to post the Ten Commandments? This is a healthy debate for any pluralistic society – what is permitted when it comes to the expression of religion in public life? The standard used to be tighter. In 1971, the Supreme Court found in Lemon v. Kurtzman that state statutes do not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause if they have a secular purpose, do not advance or inhibit religion, and do not result in “excessive government entanglement” with religion.

That Lemon test sounded precise, but in practice proved so vague as to give government wide latitude to impose burdens on religious practice. For that reason, the Supreme Court itself effectively abandoned Lemon in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District (2022).

In recent years, the Court has also repeatedly upheld the notion that the First Amendment doesn’t require treating religion as if it were a contaminated petri dish, to be hygienically removed from the public square. After all, there is no way to understand American history and culture without acknowledging the influence of religion, from abolitionism to the civil rights movement. The Supreme Court’s notion of “ceremonial deism” would also seem relevant. Such references have long been accepted in American public life – from “In God We Trust,” to modern presidents’ promise to uphold the U.S. Constitution with an added, “So help me God,” to courtroom oaths in many states.

But are the laws in Texas and Louisiana consistent with these historical standards?

Opponents point out that posting “the” Ten Commandments raises a troublesome prior question: Which version? There are Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant versions of the Ten Commandments, differing in wording and order. Politicians almost always mean the Protestant version, a decision that effectively excludes Catholic and Jewish children.

And what about the 4.5 million Muslims in the United States? Would the same politicians who welcome postings of the Protestant Ten Commandments want to see the key tenets of the Quran posted in schools in Dearborn, Michigan? Or what about the 3.5 million Hindus in the United States? Some school districts in Dallas have large numbers of Hindu students. Should they post sections of the Upanishads?

The good news is that this controversy prompts a healthy debate on the nature of the First Amendment in a pluralistic society.
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Whatever the answer, we can be glad that at 234 years of age, the First Amendment is still in the news. What better way to honor that primary law than to argue about it?

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