The ACLU of North Dakota opposes House Bill 1145, legislation that would require public schools to post copies of the Ten Commandments in classrooms and other school spaces. It’s an unnecessary, unconstitutional bill that, if passed, would likely mean costly litigation for North Dakota schools.
Students already have the right to engage in religious exercise and expression at school under current law. Students may, for example, voluntarily pray, read religious literature or engage in other religious activities during recess or lunch. The ACLU has long worked to protect the religious exercise and religious expression rights of students of all faiths in public schools.
But there’s a stark difference between voluntary, student-initiated religious exercise and school-sponsored promotion of religion. Court precedent confirms this.
The U.S. Supreme Court said in Stone v. Graham 45 years ago that “if the posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey the Commandments. However desirable this might be as a matter of private devotion, it is not a permissible state objective under the Establishment Clause.” A federal district court recently enjoined a similar Louisiana law, holding that it violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Additionally, in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU shortly before the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Stone, the U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota struck down a similar North Dakota law that required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
“America is not a theocracy and North Dakota’s public schools shouldn’t be used to religiously indoctrinate or convert students. This bill is unconstitutional and an affront to the American ideals of religious liberty,” said Cody Schuler, ACLU or North Dakota advocacy manager. “House Bill 1145, if passed, will cause students who don’t follow the state’s approved religious dictates to feel ostracized from their school community, and it will undermine their ability to learn and the state’s legal obligation to provide an equal education to all students, regardless of their faith.”
House Bill 1145 is scheduled to be heard in the House Judiciary Committee today.
About the ACLU of North Dakota
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of civil liberties and civil rights. The ACLU of North Dakota is part of a three-state chapter that also includes South Dakota and Wyoming. The team in North Dakota is supported by staff in those states.
The ACLU believes freedoms of press, speech, assembly and religion, and the rights to due process, equal protection and privacy, are fundamental to a free people. In addition, the ACLU seeks to advance constitutional protections for groups traditionally denied their rights, including people of color, women and LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit communities. The ACLU of North Dakota carries out its work through selective litigation, lobbying at the state and local level, and through public education and awareness of what the Bill of Rights means for the people of North Dakota.
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