S.C. House Bill Would Require Posting of 10 Commandments in Public Schools

Skylar Laird/S.C. Daily Gazette

COLUMBIA — Every classroom in public K-12 schools and colleges would have to display a copy of the Ten Commandments under a bill that advanced in the House this week.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 18-to-3 to advance the bill, which also creates the option of displaying numerous other historical documents in classrooms and allows schools to accept volunteer chaplains.

Alongside the 11-by-13-inch posters or framed copies of the Ten Commandments, all teachers would also have to display a “context statement” about the history of schools teaching the text.

Schools would not have to pay for posters listing the Ten Commandments under the bill. Districts and universities can collect donations for the posters, or they can use free versions, which the bill requires the Department of Education to provide.

The Wednesday vote came the same day an appeals court heard arguments on a nearly identical law Louisiana’s legislature passed in 2024.

Although both the Louisiana law and the South Carolina bill listed U.S. Supreme Court decisions legislators claimed made the practice legal, a federal judge in Louisiana stopped the law from taking effect in the state in 2024. A subset of a federal appeals court found the law unconstitutional, before an appeal brought the case before a full, 17-judge panel for a hearing this week.

“This is still in limbo,” South Carolina Rep. Beth Bernstein, a Columbia Democrat, said of the bill. “It’s going to be determined probably by the U.S. Supreme Court.”

South Carolina’s bill repeats nearly the entire Louisiana bill, including a quote attorneys challenging Louisiana’s law say is attributed incorrectly to James Madison.

Defending the historical value of the Ten Commandments, the bill cites Madison as saying “(w)e have staked the whole future of our new nation upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.” But no one has proven that Madison actually said that, Louisiana lawyers argued in court.

South Carolina’s version expands the bill to classrooms at publicly funded universities. And, after a change made during the committee meeting, it lists the Emancipation Proclamation as one of the other documents teachers could display, though that is not required.

Teachers could also put up copies of the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence, though neither is required.

All three are historical documents, supporters of the bill said.

“We’re proud in South Carolina to put America first by continuing our history, our heritage and, of course, our faith,” Rep. Richie Yow, a Chesterfield Republican and Baptist pastor, told the SC Daily Gazette.

Students aren’t meant to unquestioningly accept the text but to engage with it as they would with any historical document, said Rep. Kathy Landing.

“For our young children to be exposed to that, to be able to ask questions and maybe even be able to debate and discuss sometimes some of those commandments is not a bad thing,” the Mount Pleasant Republican said. “It actually helps strengthen the education process, and Lord knows we need plenty of that.”

Opponents argued the bill violates the establishment clause in the Constitution’s First Amendment, commonly referred to as requiring a separation of church and state. Including the Ten Commandments but no equivalent for other religions can exclude students who aren’t Christian, said Rep. John King.

“While I am a Christian and believe in the Ten Commandments, I also am not blind in reference to other people, and they do not believe in what we believe in,” King said.

Rep. Justin Bamberg, a Bamberg County Democrat, said he didn’t mind teachers displaying the Ten Commandments but didn’t understand why that document was required while other important pieces of history were simply allowed under the bill.

Despite his concerns, Bamberg voted in favor of advancing the bill.

“I don’t think anybody has a problem with history,” Bamberg said. “The question is, what and whose history?”

The bill would also allow school districts to create policies for allowing volunteer chaplains to visit school grounds and counsel students on religious issues while there. Students would need parent permission to opt into any services involving the chaplains.