AUSTIN — Texas Governor Greg Abbott has made it his mission to display the Ten Commandments in public settings. In 2005, he defended a Ten Commandments monument on the Texas Capitol before the United States Supreme Court and successfully navigated the legal quandary.
How will this play out in classrooms, given that legal challenges are sure to arise from the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the Texas mandate blatantly unconstitutional? However, there is also pushback from another unlikely group of Christian and Jewish leaders who oppose the law. This group argues that it violates the separation of church and state.
The law requires a poster or a framed copy of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom. According to a Republican cosponsor, State Rep.
Candy Noble, the goal is for stu- dents to reflect on the educational and historical significance of the Ten Commandments.
Will the law make its way up to the U.S. Supreme Court? Gov.
Abbott seems prepared to take on the challenge all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, depending on actions from the 5th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears Texas cases.
