Public schools are not religious institutions, and this principle is especially important in light of the renewed push in state legislatures to mandate hanging posters of the Ten Commandments in public schools. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled such displays are unconstitutional because they violate the First Amendment’s establishment clause. Yet despite this clear constitutional guidance, conservative state legislators push the issue.
On March 16, 2026, a federal court in Arkansas issued the latest ruling again reiterating that these displays are unconstitutional. Legal cases are also ongoing in Texas and Louisiana, which recently passed similar legislation. Several other states are currently attempting to pass their own bills.
These bills are the latest front in a crusade to dismantle the separation of church and state. Other efforts have included installing chaplains in public schools and pushing government-sponsored prayer in public schools.
As debates continue, it’s critical to understand the many reasons that the Ten Commandments should not be mandated in public school classrooms. Here are 10 of them.
- It’s unconstitutional. The far right-wing extremists pushing these bills are advancing a misguided reading of the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. In that case, the court did not open the floodgates to more religion in public schools, but rather ruled that high school football coach Joe Kennedy was engaging in private, constitutionally protected prayer. Supreme Court precedent striking down such Ten Commandments displays is still good law.
- Public school teachers should not be in charge of religious instruction. Imagine every teacher in U.S. public schools having to explain the theological concepts underpinning the Ten Commandments. Public schools should not be put in charge of religious instruction, which is better entrusted to churches and other houses of worship.
- The government should not pick religious favorites. By mandating a specific religious code on classroom walls, states would blatantly side with one religion. Religious freedom is upheld when the government neither promotes nor denigrates any religion.
- The Ten Commandments is not merely a historical document. The argument that the Ten Commandments is just a historical document should offend all Christians and Jews who view this passage of scripture as holy. “I understand those that are opposed are trying to make it a religious issue. It’s not. It’s a historical issue,” said Alabama state Sen. Keith Kelley (R) during an interview. Robbing the Ten Commandments of its religious significance is itself ahistorical.
- The Ten Commandments are not the basis of American law. The founders of the United States could have established a Christian country or declared a religious basis for the new nation’s laws, but chose not to. Instead, they created a nation that allowed religious freedom.
- The hypocrisy is biblical in scale. MAGA extremist politicians are not a credible group to call for public piety. While President Donald Trump has embraced displays of the Ten Commandments in schools, his behavior has at times seemed antithetical to the Ten Commandments. If these politicians truly cared about the Ten Commandments as a moral code, they would hold their own leaders accountable to them.
- The Ten Commandments vary across religions. A Catholic, a Protestant, and a Jew all list the Ten Commandments in different orders and with varied wordings. State-mandated posting of the Ten Commandments means the government will choose one sectarian version and enshrine it in a public classroom.
- Many Americans do not hold the Ten Commandments to be part of their tradition. Posting the Ten Commandments in public schools sends an unmistakable sign to every child who is not Christian or Jewish that they do not belong. Dividing classrooms along religious lines is a recipe for more division and polarization in classrooms.
- Mandating the Ten Commandments undermines their value. Legislators pushing these displays are effectively saying their faith needs government enforcement to survive. That is not faith. It’s idolatry of power. Remember “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”? Co-opting God’s name and words for a cynical political crusade sure sounds like doing exactly that.
- This effort politicizes education about religion. The Ten Commandments can and should be studied in schools as a matter of teaching about the diversity of religious traditions in the country and around the world. But this effort to force its posting on classroom walls is divisive and needlessly attempts to score political points.
It is up to all Americans—especially those who hold the Ten Commandments as a sacred text—to keep the government from co-opting them. The Ten Commandments live vibrantly in many Americans’ hearts, homes, and houses of worship. But taxpayer-funded classrooms must uphold education policies that value religious freedom for all students and families.