COMMENTARY: A religious liberty clinic at the Catholic law school should be the first to defend the presence of religious texts in public education. Instead, it has embraced an erroneous understanding of the Establishment Clause and a faulty view of free exercise.
Texas wants its students to see the Ten Commandments. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott signed S.B. 10, requiring a poster or framed copy of the Decalogue in every public school classroom. Louisiana had already passed a similar law.
The ACLU, representing a group of objecting parents, sued, and a federal judge blocked the Texas law. In April, the Fifth Circuit sitting en banc reversed in Nathan v. Alamo Heights ISD. The court’s opinion, written by Judge Kyle Duncan, explained that the displays do not violate the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment. The law, Duncan observed, “puts a poster on a classroom wall.” The ACLU has asked the Supreme Court to take the case.
As reported recently, the petition has drawn a surprising ally. The Lindsay & Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic at Notre Dame Law School, on behalf of scholars from other institutions, has urged the justices to strike the law down, saying it “forces state-sponsored religious
