BILLS WOULD PERMIT TEN COMMANDMENTS, PERIOD OF PRAYER DURING SCHOOL HOURS

(AUSTIN) — Students and faculty at Texas public schools could conduct prayer and other religious activities under a bill given approval by the Senate on Tuesday. Galveston Senator Mayes Middleton said that his bill, SB 11, follows recent rulings from the US Supreme Court and would allow willing students and faculty to hold voluntary prayer, and Bible – or other religious text – study sessions. Middleton says his bill reaffirms the state’s traditions and values. “We are a nation and a state built on ‘In God We Trust’,” he said. The body also gave tentative approval to a measure by Weatherford Senator Phil King, SB 10, which would require that the Ten Commandments are posted in every public school classroom. King says that these tenets form the bedrock for government and the legal system in the United States. “Few documents have had a larger impact on our moral code and our legal code and just our culture than the Ten Commandments,” said King.

Galveston Senator Mayes Middleton’s SB 11 would allow willing students and faculty to conduct periods of prayer at Texas public schools.

The issue of religion in school has been contended under the First Amendment and has come before the nation’s highest court multiple times. In 1962, the Supreme Court ruled in Engle v. Vitale that a mandated recitation of religious prayer in public school violated the establishment clause of the US Constitution. Justice Hugo Black, writing for the majority, found that a 22-word non-denominational prayer the New York Board of Regents required to be read at the start of each school day did not pass constitutional muster. "When the power, prestige and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved religion is plain,” he wrote.

In 1971, the Court established a procedure that future judges would use to determine whether a public policy violated the establishment clause. Called “the Lemon test”, after Lemon v. Kurtzman, the case that established the procedure, it had a threefold standard: a statute must have a secular purpose, it must not either enhance or inhibit religion, and it must not result in “entanglement” between government and religion. In 1980, this test was applied by the Court to prohibit the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools in Stone v. Graham. This served as the law of the land until 2022.

The Court took up Kennedy v. Bremerton School District in 2022, involving the case of Joseph Kennedy, an assistant football coach who led a prayer following each game. Concerned that this might violate the establishment clause, the school board asked him to move the location or timing of his prayer. He refused, and was eventually placed on administrative leave. The Court ruled in favor of Kennedy, effectively ending the Lemon test and replacing it with a standard of coercion. Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said that this case demonstrated an undue hostility towards religion that wasn’t required under the First Amendment. “There is no indication in the record ... that anyone expressed any coercion concerns to the District about the quiet, postgame prayers that Mr. Kennedy asked to continue and that led to his suspension,” wrote Gorsuch. What set this case apart from previous rulings, he went on, is that those cases involved broadcasting a prayer to a captive audience or requiring participation. This decision opened the door for legislation like SB 10 and SB 11, permitting non-coercive religious expression in public schools. “Because of that, we can today put the Ten Commandments back in our public school classrooms in Texas,” said King. SB 10 must still face another, final vote Wednesday.

For SB 11, consent must be explicit. Faculty and students must submit consent forms affirming their desire to participate in these religious periods. The activities must take place out of the presence and hearing of those who have not signed consent forms. No one would be required to participate, and the period could not substitute for instructional time. Each school board would be responsible for voting on whether or not their district will participate in the program.

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