The Texas Senate Education Committee Wednesday morning took up legislation that would mandate installing large posters of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom across the state.
Republicans invited a mother to share why she supports the bill that requires the religious document be readable from anywhere in the room, “in a size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom in which the poster or framed copy is displayed.”
The mother told lawmakers, “The Ten Commandments are not only a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths, but they’re also essential to direct secular issues or more secular issues of just honoring one’s parents.”
“Not murdering, not committing adultery, not stealing, not bearing false witness and not being covetous,” she explained.
“As a mom of seven, I homeschool because I see what’s happening in the public schools, but it’s my desire to see order and morality restored to the classrooms, that it will again be a place where people can feel safe sending their children,” she said.
She did not stop there.
“We must restore a biblical standard to our educational system,” she declared.
The modern day United States does not have a “biblical standard” in its public schools system, thanks to several decades-old U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Those who oppose mandating the installation of religious texts in public, taxpayer-funded schools, can thank the unnamed mother for making their case for them – one that the U.S. Supreme Court already decided was unconstitutional more than 40 years ago.
The mother, who was reading from pre-written note cards, possibly written by her or another party, focused on the “secular issues” portion of the Ten Commandments – a wise choice if you’re attempting to contradict a Supreme Court decision and the U.S. Constitution.
In 1980. the U.S. Supreme Court in Stone v. Graham ruled 5-4 that a Kentucky state law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. That law, as the legal website Oyez notes, “required the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments in each public school classroom,” just as the proposed Texas bill, SB 1515, does.
Here’s the critical part that the mother’s testimony mutes:
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“The Court found that the requirement that the Ten Commandments be posted ‘had no secular legislative purpose’ and was ‘plainly religious in nature,'” Oyez explains. “The Court noted that the Commandments did not confine themselves to arguably secular matters (such as murder, stealing, etc.), but rather concerned matters such as the worship of God and the observance of the Sabbath Day.”
Moreover, the mother makes clear her goal is to “restore a biblical standard to our educational system,” which presumably also violates the U.S. Constitution.
Watch a short clip of her testimony, posted by NBC News’ Mike Hixenbaugh, below or at this link.