Texas’ Ten Commandments law to go into effect next week
Come September 1st, Texas school districts are required to display in the Ten Commandments in all classrooms
Texas (KWTX) - In less than a week, Texas school districts will be required to display the Ten Commandments in each classroom at public elementary or secondary schools.
Legislation reads -- a poster or framed copy of the commandments must be a size that can be read by someone with average vision, and measure at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.
Activists have sued several school districts to stop the law.
On August 20th, a federal district court judge issued a preliminary injunction for 11 school districts in ongoing litigation, preventing them from displaying any copies of the Ten Commandments.
Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed that ruling. We spoke local officials on the status of the law.
“They’re even posted inside the Supreme Court in Washington D.C., a historical context that many of the founders of the country thought of this as a good structure for many of the laws for centuries,” McLennan County Republican Party Chairman Christopher DeCluitt said.
A statement provided to us from the McLennan County Democratic Party Chairman Mark Hays reads in part quote:
“History shows us clearly that when the government establishes and promotes a religion disaster follows. We believe that the mandatory posting, required by state law, of the Ten Commandments amounts to an establishment of religion and is therefore unconstitutional and contrary to our nation’s founding principles."
As of now -- no districts in our area are impacted by the lawsuit and they are required to have the Ten Commandments posted by September 1st.
Districts including Midway ISD tell us they will be fully compliant when the law goes into effect.
Districts named in the lawsuit include: Alamo Heights, North East, Austin, Cypress Fairbanks, Lackland, Lake Travis, Fort Bend, Houston, Dripping Springs, Plano, and Northside.
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