Fifth Circuit Says Texas Free To Shove Ten Commandments Down Schoolchildren's Throats
Those are some pretty large tablets.
Texas is now free to force schools to post the Ten Commandments in every classroom in the state, as per a no-good-very-bad ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturning a lower court’s block on the no-good-very-bad law. Somehow, possibly because they are especially daft, the court found that the law did not violate the First Amendment or amount to the establishment of religion.
“No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin,” read the 9-8 ruling that obviously ignored the intent of the law.
Rather ridiculously, the court claimed that because the Supreme Court invalidated the Lemon test — which, very sensibly, held that a law must “(A) have a secular purpose, (B) have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and (C) not foster excessive government entanglement with religion” — they now have a new (deeply stupid) way of determining whether or not a law violates the Establishment clause.
In place of Lemon, courts now ask a question rooted in the past: does the law at issue resemble a founding-era religious establishment? Answering that question requires delving into historical sources and scholarship. These show that, in the late 18th century, an “establishment of religion” was a familiar institution: a polity’s official church or religion. The paradigm was the Church of England. Over half the states had establishments when the First Amendment was adopted, and the remnants of those establishments persisted for decades. […]
S.B. 10 looks nothing like a historical religious establishment. It does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams. It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason. It levies no taxes to support any clergy. It does not co-opt churches to perform civic functions. These are the kinds of things “establishments of religion” did at the founding. S.B. 10 does none of them.
Also, you will note, absolutely no one is wearing a powdered wig and the school children rarely spend their recess time rolling a wooden circle around by hitting it with a bat. Therefore, ipso facto, shoving the tenets of the Christian religion down the throats of children in public schools does not count as the establishment of religion.
Soon-to-be divorced adulterer Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton celebrated the ruling, stating that “The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day.” You know, just like he did.
It is not actually clear how the Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, given that the entire first slate of is nullified by the aforementioned First Amendment to the Constitution, as well as the fact that our entire economic system is based largely on covetousness, but Paxton did not care to explain that part. Probably because of the whole adultery thing.
A spokesperson for Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the mandate was a “commonsense law, consistent with our history and tradition,” also not explaining why that would be, particularly given that school prayer has been illegal in this country since 1962’s Engel v. Vitale. But hey! If you describe your terrible law as “commonsense,” that means everyone has to go along with it.
I mean, it’s just common sense.
Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico, who will likely be facing Paxton in the upcoming election (the Republicans are still in a runoff), explained that his Christian faith does not involve demanding the state evangelize to children.
He said:
“I’m not sure if Ken Paxton is in a place to lecture us on moral values. My faith teaches me to love my neighbor as myself — not just my neighbors who look like me, vote like me, or pray like me.
”I don’t want anyone forcing their religion down my throat, and I certainly don’t want the government forcing a religion down my throat.
”I’m a Christian, but I know that the most dangerous form of government is theocracy. Because the only thing worse than a tyrant is a tyrant who thinks they’re on a mission from God.”
And the only thing worse than that is one who thinks that they literally are God (or, to be fair, Doctor God).
The ACLU, which represented the plaintiffs in the matter, also issued a statement:
“We are extremely disappointed in today’s decision. The Court’s ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority. The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction. This decision tramples those rights. We anticipate asking the Supreme Court to reverse this decision and uphold the religious-freedom rights of children and parents.”
That would sure be nice, but given the current makeup of the court, it seems unlikely. I guess, for now, we just have to hope that Justice Alito doesn’t quit before the midterms and also that the next President will be a Democrat who will be able to replace both him and Thomas with sane people, so that everything can go back to normal.
Now, the main reason these lunatics insist that these Commandments must be posted in the classroom is so that children know they are the basis for our laws. In reality, most of our laws are based on English Common Law, which initially developed throughout the reigns of Kings Henrys I & II and Edward I as a way to make the legal system more consistent and uniform throughout the nation. There is nothing in the Bible about 12 person jury trials, judicial circuits, or even uniform laws throughout the land. Indeed, only two of the Commandments, stealing and murder, are currently illegal in this country. I can covet all I want, I can do all the adultery I want, I can, as long as it’s not in a court of law, bear false witness without fear of criminal charges (although you could sue me civilly!), I can do anything I want on a Sunday, and I can blaspheme all I want, as per the very first amendment to the Constitution.
The real reason, rather ironically, is that they very much want children of other faiths and no faith to “dishonor” their parents by converting to Christianity.
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Christian Nationalists have been desperately trying to manifest a religious revival in this country not by conversion but through FOMO — by insisting that it is happening despite all evidence to the contrary, in the hope that all the kids will succumb to some nebulous peer pressure. Factually, Gen Z is the least religious US generation in history, and yet the Right is out here incessantly celebrating their return to religious fundamentalism. Sure, this is partly because a lot of them are in a right-wing bubble filled with aspiring Duggars (not a great place to take the kids), but it’s also because they think if they keep saying it, if they keep pushing Christianity onto children who are not their children, if they make it “the norm” in their lives, the youths will gravitate towards it regardless of their parents’ beliefs.
What schools should do, frankly, should be to put the Commandments on the wall …next to the tenets of every other religion on earth, past and present. Because, really, nothing makes a person skeptical about one God quite like learning about all of the others. Most of them won’t do that, because Texas, but a girl can dream.
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"The Court’s ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority"
Oh ACLU, you sweet summer child, there is no such thing as 'binding Supreme Court authority' any more, only the whims of the white supremacist theorcrat majority of the Court.
Christains gotta mark "their" territory. That's all they have.