Legislators in North Dakota are deliberating a bill that would allow public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

The measure’s sponsor is Sen. Janne Myrdal, a Republican whose district includes several counties in the northeastern part of the state. Myrdal said she thinks it’s fine to post the Ten Commandments in schools because “no religion is offended by the Ten Commandments. None.”

Myrdal also dismissed concerns that the bill violates the separation of church and state because, she said, those words don’t appear in America’s founding documents. She went on to assert that “after we took prayer and the Ten Commandments out of the public school” teen pregnancy and crime rates rose.             

The measure has passed both chambers of the North Dakota legislature and has been sent to Gov Doug Burgum (R), who is expected to sign it. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down public school displays of the Ten Commandments in a 1980 case called Stone v. Graham.

BREAKING NEWS

Americans United & the National Women’s Law Center file suit to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans.

Abortion bans violate the separation of church and state. Americans United and the National Women’s Law Center—the leading experts in religious freedom and gender justice—have joined forces with thirteen clergy from six faith traditions to challenge Missouri’s abortion bans as unconstitutionally imposing one narrow religious doctrine on everyone.


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