COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- An Ohio Senate bill would require public schools to display at least one historical document in every classroom from a list of nine, one of which is the Ten Commandments.
Sen. Terry Johnson (R-Portsmouth) introduced Senate Bill 34, also called the Historical Educational Displays Act. S.B. 34 is currently in the Senate Education Committee and is co-sponsored by seven senators, all Republican. If passed, every public classroom in Ohio would have to display at least one text off this list of nine historical documents:
Boards of education would also be allowed to erect monuments or markers to any of the historical documents listed. Under the law, each historical document would be accompanied by an educational document explaining its historical significance.
Ohio schools risk federal funding if they teach ‘unpatriotically’ under Trump orderThe Ten Commandments stand out among the other secular documents, particularly as it has been ruled unconstitutional to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools multiple times. As recently as 2019, a New Philadelphia, Ohio, school was made to remove a 92-year-old plaque displaying the Ten Commandments after the Freedom from Religion Foundation said it violated the First Amendment.
The bill does not appear to have bipartisan support as it is written.
"Based upon past US Supreme Court precedent, we’re very concerned about the constitutionality of the provision of S.B. 34 that includes the Ten Commandments," Ohio Senate Democratic Leader Nickie Antonio said. "This precedent was most recently upheld by a federal court in Louisiana, which blocked their law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom."
The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from "establishing" a religion, including in public schools. According to the United States Courts government website, courts typically use the "Lemon" test -- named for a landmark relevant case, Lemon v. Kurtzman -- when considering if government interaction with religion violates the First Amendment. Under the Lemon test, the government can only assist religion if the main purpose is secular, it neither promotes nor limits religion, and there is no excessive entanglement between church and state.
Dr. Amy Acton on running for Ohio governor and why she quit as state health director"The ACLU of Ohio opposes Senate Bill 34 as it is a plainly obvious attempt to unconstitutionally impose religious beliefs upon Ohio’s public school children," Gary Daniels, chief lobbyist for the ACLU of Ohio, said. "That Ten Commandments displays would be one option among several others does nothing to make this proposal any less unconstitutional. Ohioans want solutions to actual problems, not the endless culture war battles they see coming out of the Statehouse designed to distract them."
In June 2002, the ACLU of Ohio won two court cases in one week challenging the display of the Ten Commandments in public high schools in the state. The first of the two cases specifically barred public schools from displaying the Ten Commandments, reinforcing a 1980 Supreme Court case that agreed posting the Ten Commandments in a public school violated the First Amendment.
“The United States does not have a national religion, and as state lawmakers, we should not be promoting any one religion over another in our public schools,” Antonio said.
Ohio Senate Republicans did not respond to a request for comment, nor have they publicized a statement. If it became law as written, every classroom in Ohio would need to hang up at least one of the documents by July 1, 2026.
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