AFN talked with Matt Krause with First Liberty Institute. He also testified in favor of this bill.
“Thanks to the Kennedy decision in 2022, the Supreme Court threw out what was called the Lemon test when deciding what public displays of religion are constitutional or not. One of the decisions that had been based on the Lemon test in Stone v Graham was that the Ten Commandments could no longer be posted on public school walls."
The Lemon test required that a governmental law or action: have a secular legislative purpose, neither advance nor inhibit religion and must not result in an “excessive government entanglement” with religion.
Krause said he thinks that now with the Lemon test gone, you're seeing a lot of states revisit bringing the displays back to classrooms.
Krause said this bill is in the first step of what is usually a three-step process to becoming a law.
"It's just come through the Senate. So now, it will go over to the House. Hopefully the House will hear it in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully they'll pass it, and as long as there's no changes to the bill, it'll go to the governor's desk. If there are, the House and the Senate will have to confer on any of the changes, but hopefully it ends up in the governor's desk before the end of the legislative session at the end of May."
Hopeful for bill's passage
Krause said he feels very confident this time around that it will get passed in the state.
"Governor Abbott has already shown his approval for it. The lieutenant governor has made it an emergency item. Speaker (Dustin) Burrows has talked about this in the past in terms of something that's important to get done. So, I feel pretty confident that it is going to become law in Texas by the end of the legislative session."
