Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) are leading a group of congressional Republicans asking a federal appeals court to uphold a Texas law requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in the state’s public schools.
The lawmakers filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, arguing that “plainly, our nation’s history and tradition acknowledge Moses as a lawgiver and the Ten Commandments as a historical foundation of our system of laws.”
The law has been blocked by a U.S. district court judge, Fred Biery, who said it “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions and officially favors Christian denominations over others.”
“The Ten Commandments, adorned both inside and outside the U.S. Supreme Court, served as essential building blocks for Western civilization and are deeply embedded in the history of this country,” Johnson stated.
Cruz, chair of the Senate judiciary subcommittee on federal courts, was the Texas solicitor general when, in 2005, the Supreme Court allowed a display of the Ten Commandments at the state capitol in Austin.
“Public displays of the Ten Commandments reinforce the founding principles for current and future generations, and are crucial to shaping a shared civic culture,” he stated in signing the latest brief.
Johnson and Cruz were joined by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), and 27 other Senate and House Republicans.
“The Ten Commandments ensure students are reminded of the Judeo-Christian values that have shaped our state and nation,” Cornyn stated.
The case was brought by families of various faiths, led by Rabbi Mara Nathan, senior rabbi at Temple Beth-El, a Reform congregation in San Antonio. She has been there since 2014 and was the first female senior rabbi of a major congregation in the state.
Opponents of the law said it impermissibly favors the Protestant interpretation of the Ten Commandments over those of other faiths, including the versions in the Torah. (There are slightly different wordings of the text in Exodus and Deuteronomy.)
“While our Jewish faith treats the Ten Commandments as sacred, the version mandated under this law does not match the text followed by our family, and the school displays will conflict with the religious beliefs and values we seek to instill in our child,” Nathan said in July, when the lawsuit was filed.
But Roy said that the United States “was founded as a nation grounded in a distinctly Christian understanding.”
“Placing the Ten Commandments in every classroom in Texas affirms that we are a Judeo-Christian nation, upholding our historical and moral heritage and proclaiming the Ten Commandments as a guiding path for a righteous way of life,” he said.
