Display of the Ten Commandments in Public Schools (HB 1086)

This bill adds the Ten Commandments to the state’s current list of “protected” historical documents, which would allow schools and teachers to post the text or parts of it in classrooms freely. This was amended from an earlier version that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom. Although this shifts the issue from a mandate to an optional display, it still creates a state-sanctioned path for religious coercion in public schools.

We oppose this bill because, as courts across the country have repeatedly affirmed, posting explicitly religious documents such as the Ten Commandments is a blatant violation of the First Amendment right to worship as we choose, or not at all – free from government-imposed religion.