All public schools in Arkansas will be required to display a copy of the Ten Commandments under a new state law.
Senate Bill 433, now Act 573, requires a Ten Commandments display in all state and local government buildings, including in every public school and college classroom. The bill became law on Monday, five days after it received final legislative approval.
Speaking in a committee meeting earlier this month, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Alyssa Brown, R-Heber Springs, said it’s an effort to educate students on how the United States was founded and framed its Constitution.
“Every day, as members, we stand on the House floor and we take a pledge of allegiance to one nation under God. We have the ‘In God We Trust’ motto in those same classrooms. We’re not telling every student they have to believe in this God, but we are upholding what those historical documents mean and that historical national motto,” Brown said.
Several Democratic lawmakers spoke against the bill, including Fayetteville Rep. Nicole Clowney, who said the bill goes beyond simply exercising religious freedom.
“What you’re talking about is what is allowed in schools. What the bill is doing is what is mandated in schools. Those two things are very, very different,” Clowney said.
Brown and proponents of the bill argue it’s not unconstitutional, and that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that religious symbols are allowed in public spaces if they align with the “history and tradition test,” which has been used in several rulings overturning limitations on gun ownership and public display of religion.
“It doesn’t seem that it’s inconsistent with any of the founders’ ideals, number one, and certainly, number two, it wasn’t inconsistent with the history and tradition of education until 1980 when the Supreme Court made a brand-new decision, not basing it on any original constitutional ideas, but only on the current precedent of that time,” said Timothy Barton with the Christian special interest group WallBuilders.
Under the new law, a “durable poster or framed copy” of the Ten Commandments must be displayed alongside a copy of the nation’s motto, “In God We Trust.” The text of the Ten Commandments must be “legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the room” where it is displayed.
The displays can be donated or funded by donations, though public funds can be used if they aren’t in compliance with the new state law. A similar law was also passed in Louisiana, though that was later blocked by a federal judge.
