It looks like the Ten Commandments will be returning to Texas schools soon, now that a requirement for their display has almost passed the state legislature and will likely have the support of the Governor.
Senate Bill 10 has been slowly working its way through the halls of the Texas Capitol, originally filed in February by nearly two dozen authors and dozens of sponsors and co-sponsors, passing through the Senate on March 20th, before a long and contentious two months in the state House of Representatives, where it was the subject of talk, complaints, derision and attempted changes.
The bill, a high priority for leadership in the Legislature, finally passed through the House on Saturday evening with one final vote pending on Sunday, and then will be expected to receive the signature of both both chambers before going to Governor Greg Abbott's desk.
The House is expected to make one final approval vote on Sunday before passing the bill off to the Governor.
Gov. Abbott is expected to sign the bill, making it law, and will likely do so in a well-promoted public signing.
There are, of course, a number of lawsuits expected to challenge the new law, if it's signed.
The law would be based on a 5-4 decision in the US Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Perry, in which the high court allowed the Ten Commandments to be displayed on the Texas Capitol grounds because of its historical value and meaning.
"In the plurality opinion written by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the court noted that 'simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the establishment clause.'
"In accepting the monument, the 57th Legislature specifically noted that public campaigns to encourage the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and public places were designed 'to promote youth morality and to help stop the alarming increase in delinquency,' according to the official Senate Bill 10 analysis.
"As Justice Stephen Breyer explained in his concurring opinion, these efforts were motivated in part 'to highlight the Commandments' role in shaping civic morality.'"