A 20-hour wait to speak: A pre-dawn House panel takes up Ten Commandments bill

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At 2 a.m., they napped on benches in the Capitol corridors, blankets in tow and armed with snacks in anticipation of the long wait. At 5 a.m. they ordered coffee and hot chocolate —- to stay awake, and to stay warm in the frigid hearing room.

Early Wednesday, a couple of dozen Texans who had waited nearly 20 hours to testify on a bill to require classrooms to post the Ten Commandments gathered in the hearing room to share their views. Most were there in opposition to the bill, Senate Bill 10, which requires every public K-12 classroom to display a poster or framed copy of the Biblical code of ethics that’s at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.

As dawn broke, Alexander Shawver — one of the last people to testify — implored committee members to vote against the bill.

“I have to question the faith and motivation of anyone who wants to use the full power of the state to force a chunk of King James’ text to hang over every public school student’s head in every classroom across the state,” he said. “And when our last opportunity to testify against it is at 6 a.m., it doesn’t feel like democracy is out in the open, as it should be.”

After about two-and-a-half hours of testimony that began around 4 a.m, the bill was left pending in the public education committee when the hearing ended Wednesday morning. The Senate passed the bill, authored by Weatherford Republican Sen. Phil King, in March.

Rep. Candy Noble, who presented the bill in the House, argued at the hearing that the Ten Commandments were foundational to the United States, likening it to the Declaration of Independence.

“The Ten Commandments were a prominent part of the American education for almost three centuries before the 1971 Supreme Court decision in Lemon v. Kurtzman that eventually led to their removal from our public school classrooms” said the Lucas Republican. “That decision has now been overturned, and rightly so … Nothing is more deep-rooted in the fabric of our American tradition of education than the Ten Commandments.”

But she deferred to experts on specific questions by other lawmakers, such as whether there is a separation between church and state, saying, “That’s an interesting question that has been debated a great deal.” She also denied, in response to a question from Rep. John Bryant, that the bill had “a religious objective.”

Despite the late hour and lengthy committee agenda, which included the Ten Commandments measure, some lawmakers remained engaged, including James Talarico, a Democrat from Austin, who raised issues about the lack of parental consent required by the bill.

Other members of advocacy groups and the public flagged to the committee that the bill would send a message of exclusion to students of other faiths or those who don’t practice a religion, were irrelevant to classes like math, and could prompt questions that were not age-appropriate, such as what adultery means.

The Texas Freedom Network, a progressive think tank focused on education, joined with the Jubilee Episcopal Church, the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Sikh Coalition and Temple Beth Shalom to argue that the bill is a distraction from some of the real problems schools face. School districts across the state say they are experiencing a teacher shortage and funding shortfalls for programs like special education and school security.

A similar bill died last session after House leadership failed to bring it up for a vote — to the ire of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, for whom this is a priority issue. In the Senate, Patrick has used his influential role to move the chamber to the right: During his tenure, state Republicans have required classrooms to hang donated signs that say “In God We Trust” and approved new curriculum materials that teach the Bible and other religious texts alongside grade-school lessons.

But the dynamics in the House have shifted since the bill failed, including a new House Speaker — who was able to win passage of a school voucher bill after several failed attempts. That succeeded after a push by Gov. Greg Abbott and well-funded lobbying groups to replace anti-voucher members of the House with ones who would support the program.

This session, lawmakers have proposed measures requiring schools to provide time for prayer or to read religious texts, and another that requires schools to use Anno Domini (AD) and Before Christ (BC) when describing dates.

There’s also more legal support after a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2022, when the court ruled that a Washington state school district’s efforts to stop a high school football coach from praying with students on the 50-yard line after school games violated his free speech rights and right to freely exercise his religion.

Still, the Legislature has a number of bigger priorities to address before the end of session on June 2, said Joshua Blank, a politics professor.

“Time is still running short, and all Legislatures have to prioritize what they can accomplish with the time they have,” he said. “Tough issues, contentious issues, take more of that time.”

Elva Mendoza, an Austin resident who works for the Texas Freedom Network, stayed until 6 a.m. to testify in a personal capacity because she said she knew so many Texans who could not — including her “devout Catholic 86-year-old mother who vehemently opposes this bill because she recognizes the religious freedom that is foundational to this country.”“It’s not just about this bill — it’s about a slow and steady incursion of state-mandated religion into our lives,” she said in an interview after catching a few hours of sleep. “This is not one bill to me. This is an increasing assault on our religious liberty. And that’s why I felt like I would sacrifice my sleep, and a little bit of my health, to stay up all night and testify.”

Hayden Cohen, the state policy lead for the advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, who traveled from Houston to testify, said committee members have their minds made up, “but if no one comes to oppose the bill … they’re going to think, 'Well, no Texan cares that we’re doing this, so it’s OK.' ”

Disclosure: The Texas Freedom Network has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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