This newsletter is free and goes out to over 26,000 subscribers, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can subscribe via Patreon or the Subscribe button below! You can also make one-time donations through Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal.
Nearly a year after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued a school district for not obeying the state’s illegal Christian demand to put up posters of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a Republican judge has ordered the district to put them up by the end of this week. It caps a legal fight that’s been going on for nearly a year, though the broader fight over whether those posters can be put up in public school classrooms is still raging.
A quick recap: Last year, Texas passed a bill to post the Decalogue in public schools—King James’ Version only.
There was a federal lawsuit over the matter, which the anti-Ten Commandments side won, but the ultra-conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-8 to reverse that ruling. We’ll find out this month if the Supreme Court will hear the case.
In the meantime, Galveston ISD voted 4-3 last year against putting up the signs. As one news outlet described it, the board members said the posters “were unconstitutional and could make Christian students feel superior while ostracizing others, burden teachers with explaining religious texts, coerce children to become Christian and expose students to mature themes such as adultery.”
In light of the legal developments, though, they were in a bind. The courts were forcing them to comply even though doing so violated their own mission to do what’s best for students. That’s why their attorneys urged State District Court Judge Jeth Jones to let this play out—with a potential Supreme Court case looming.
Jones sided with Paxton instead, saying the district must put up the Ten Commandments posters within 10 days of his decision.
The district said they would comply… even though they really didn’t want to.
After Thursday’s hearing, Galveston ISD School Board President Anthony Brown said the district will comply and will have to decide where to place the posters based on how many have been donated to the district. Brown has previously stated that he doesn’t agree with the new state law.
“Our mission is to educate kids, and we have three-quarters of our kids come from families below the poverty line. We have a lot of work to do,” Brown said. “I think this is a distraction, and it’s a constitutional issue ... It’s important, but I want to be focusing on our kids, and this does not do that.”
The Ten Commandments are not important. At best, this law is pointless, and at worst, it actively harms children. It’s also a reminder that Republicans are more interested in shoving performative religion in kids’ faces than doing anything to actually improve their lives. But you can’t blame the district for not fighting this any more right now—it’s them against a horde of powerful right-wing entities.
One school board member essentially said as much during a recent board meeting:
At a September 23 school board meeting, multiple school board trustees expressed their disagreement with SB 10.
“It absolutely advocates one religion in our public education system over all other religions,” trustee Ann Masel said. “Perhaps a better use of our legislators’ time and money would be spent on assisting public education and its job of teaching children math, reading and writing and supporting those teachers entrusted with that calling.”
Masel added that although she doesn’t agree with the current law or its interpretation, she will follow it.
Masel added:
“I am vehemently opposed to posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms,” Masel said. “It pains me that I am forced to make what I consider the legal decision. Unfortunately, the reality of life is that sometimes the bully’s voice has more control than a moral voice.”
That’s Texas in a nutshell right there: They’re all about rugged individuality and freedom, but a majority of voters elect Republicans to statewide offices, who then screw over the state by taking away their freedoms, leaving individuals to pick up the pieces of the messes they leave behind.
Back in September, Christian Nationalist State Sen. Mayes Middleton donated Ten Commandments posters to Galveston ISD because the law required the district to “accept any offer of a privately donated poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments.”
Now that the district says it’ll comply with the judge’s ruling, he took a victory lap:
“Our laws are not optional or suggestions," Middleton said. "GISD thought they were, and were rightfully ordered to follow the law and display the 10 Commandments posters. Additionally, this episode highlights the absurdity of the district’s argument that the Ten Commandments are somehow harmful and should not be displayed. Don’t lie, don’t kill, don’t steal — these are things students should learn.”
Middleton, a racist who’s running to replace Paxton as attorney general, gives away the game by what he says there. Notice how he only highlights the commandments that aren’t religious because even he knows how important it is to pretend the first four Commandments don’t exist so that he can push his religion onto the children of Jewish and Muslim and non-religious parents.
To an extent, anyway. Galveston school board President Anthony Brown said that Middleton didn’t donate enough posters to cover every classroom in the district. They’ll put up the ones they received and move on. Whether malicious compliance will occur in any of those classrooms remains to be seen.
When the district chose not to put up Middleton’s posters last year, waiting for the federal courts to rule on this first, Paxton sued them, saying in a press release that the district was essentially denying the country’s Christian heritage (which is a lie) and refusing to obey the law (which they were also not doing).
“America is a Christian nation, and it is imperative that we display the very values and timeless truths that have historically guided the success of our country,” said Attorney General Paxton. “By refusing to follow the law, Galveston ISD chose to both blatantly ignore the Legislature and also ignore the legal and moral heritage of our nation.”
…
Attorney General Paxton further stated that, “There is no valid legal basis to prevent Texas schools from honoring a foundational framework of our laws, especially under the misconception that a ‘separation of church and state’ phrase appears in the Constitution. It does not.”
Paxton was deliberately lying about the law because he’s a conservative Christian, so honesty doesn’t play any role in his moral philosophy. (Just ask his wife.) As any legal scholar or middle schooler can tell you, while the exact phrase “separation of church and state” doesn’t appear in the Constitution, that’s what the Establishment Clause means. That’s what court after court has affirmed for generations. Conservative Christians want to play a semantic game because they’re well aware that the law isn’t on their side. The only way they can spread their faith is through force, which tells you a lot about how little confidence they have in the persuasive power of the Bible itself.
So this is where we’re at now: Instead of doing anything to improve education, Republicans and their lapdog judges are forcing their religion into classrooms. It’s not enough that they whitewash history; they won’t rest under they replace actual education with Sunday School.
This isn’t even about the Ten Commandments anymore. It’s about control. Republicans want to turn schools into pulpits, forcing teachers and students to publicly affirm a theology many of them don’t share. That’s how insecure their party is. Unable to win people over with their ideas, they’re rigging maps and weaponizing children’s education to prop up their own crumbling moral authority.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
As though the adultrous, ever-corrupt Paxton gave a damn about following the Ten Commandments himself.
Those are for others. Not him, the hypocrite.
𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑑 𝑙𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑎𝑠𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑇𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑐ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑙𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑙𝑎𝑤𝑠, 𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎 ‘𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑜𝑓 𝑐ℎ𝑢𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒’ 𝑝ℎ𝑟𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛. 𝐼𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡.
Perhaps not, but what about this:
... 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑛𝑜 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑡𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠.
-- US Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 3
𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑛𝑜 𝑙𝑎𝑤 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛...
-- "Establishment Clause, First Amendment to the Constitution
And that long-time favorite:
𝐴𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑈𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝐴𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛...
-- Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11
Someone needs to tell Paxton that his assertion that the 10 Commandments are foundational to the laws and structure of this nation is utterly MISTAKEN. Yeah, I know, he won't listen. He still needs to be told that ... REPEATEDLY.