Alabama lawmakers are once again placing the Ten Commandments at the center of a cultural and potential legal battle, unveiling legislation Wednesday that would require the biblical directives to be displayed at the entrances of all public schools.

The move echoes a decades-old fight over religion in government, reigniting memories of Roy Moore’s defiant stand in the early 2000s when he installed—and refused to remove—a massive Ten Commandments monument from the state’s judicial building.

It also follows Gov. Kay Ivey’s call to incorporate “key historical documents” and the Ten Commandments in classrooms, setting the stage for a high-stakes legal showdown over the separation of church and state.

The Ten Commandments are a set of moral, religious and ethical directives that were given by God to Moses while on Mount Sinai.

“The United States of America was founded as one nation under God, and it is important for our students to understand that through key documents like the Ten Commandments, the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, to name a few,” said Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola.

“The governor has long been a supporter of displaying the Ten Commandments in public places, and doing so along with other founding articles is the right way to do it.”

School requirement

The legislation, HB178, requires a Ten Commandments display inside the “entry way or other common area of a school, such as a school library.”

The nature of each display will be determined by a local school board, with the minimum requirement that the Ten Commandments be displayed on a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches-by-14 inches.

The text of the Ten Commandments is to be the central focus of the poster or framed document, and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font, the legislation states.

Each display will include the Ten Commandments, and a lengthy context statement entitled, “The History of the Ten Commandments in American Public Education.”

The legislation says its intent is not to create an “unfunded mandate” on local schools. School boards are allowed to accept donations to purchase the displays or can accept donated displays.

The bill requires the Alabama State Department of Education to identify and publicize free resources that local school boards may use to comply with display requirements. A spokesperson with the state agency deferred comments about the Ten Commandments to the governor’s office.

The legislation emphasizes the historical significance of the Ten Commandments, a document whose public displays have long been litigated and debate over its religious context of not taking God’s name in vain, for remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy, and for not having any “no other gods before me.”

“Recognizing the historical role of the Ten Commandments accords with our nation’s history and faithfully reflets the understanding of the founders of our nation with respect to the necessity of civic morality to a functional self-government,” according to HB178′s text.

The bill’s main sponsor is Republican state Rep. Mark Gidley, a longtime pastor at Faith Worship Center in Glencoe. The bill has 21 co-sponsors.

Historical or religious

The bill also allows school boards to also display other historical documents like the Declaration of Independence, Mayflower Compact signed in 1620 that served as the first governing document of Plymouth Colony, and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 that outlines the process of admitting new states into the Union.

But the references to the Mayflower Compact and the Northwest Ordinance within HB178 include religious statements.

According to the legislation, the Mayflower Company was America’s first written constitution and made a “covenant with Almighty God to ‘form a civil body politic.’ This was the first purely American document of self-government and affirmed the link between civil society and God.”

Regarding the Northwest Ordinance, the bill states it “extended fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty,” to the territories and said, “religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”

“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” said Alex Luchenitser, associate vice president and associate legal director with the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

“Our Constitution’s promise of church-state separation means that parents and students – not politicians or public-school officials – must be free to decide if, when, and how children engage with religion.”

A Ten Commandments plaque hangs in the Alabama State Capitol. It is part of a display with historical documents including the U.S. Constitution, Magna Carta and Mayflower Compact.

Legal battles

The organization noted that the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law in 1980 that required a Ten Commandments posting in all public-school classrooms.

That case was not cited in HB178, but the 2005 Supreme Court ruling in Van Orden v. Perry is highlighted, in which the high court found it permissible to display the Ten Commandments on government property.

Last June, Louisiana was the first state to require public Ten Commandment displays inside schools. A federal judge blocked the law from going forward in November.

The judge called the law “unconstitutional on its face” because it violated a separation of church and state. It is currently being litigated before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

Other states with GOP-led legislatures, like Texas and Montana, are considering similar bills while the Louisiana law works its way through the federal court system and could be considered before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“I anticipate that other states will follow Louisiana’s lead about posting the Ten Commandments,” said Steven Green, professor of history and religious studies at Willamette University in Salem, Ore.

“Since that case has already been argued on the preliminary injunction issue before the 5th Circuit and may have a decision in the not-to-distant future that could be appealed to the (Supreme Court), I would not be surprised if other red states held off.”

He added, “But legislators do like the limelight of backing cultural war issues.”

Partisan dispute

The effort has the support of the Alabama Republican Party, whose chairman John Wahl praised Ivey for her State of the State address and her leadership in education. The GOP holds a supermajority in the state Legislature.

“Her comments on school choice, parental rights, and returning the Ten Commandments to classrooms were spot on,” Wahl said. “The Alabama Republican Party stands with the governor in ensuring our children receive the quality education they deserve.”

The Alabama Democratic Party called the focus on the Ten Commandments as an example of Republican efforts to turn the U.S. into a “christofascist ethnostate” while ignoring the Constitution, the will of the founders, and the rule of law.”

“This country was founded upon the freedom of religion, and regardless of the desires of those within the Supreme Court, Congress, Executive branch and officers in state government who wish to force their beliefs and ways of life upon others, that foundation remains solid,” said Sheena Gamble, spokesperson with the Alabama Democratic Party.

Past battles

The Ten Commandments issue is being resurrected in Alabama for the first time since 2018, when Orange Beach conservative and former congressional candidate Dean Young led efforts to get the Ten Commandments enshrined in the Alabama Constitution.

His effort was successful, with 72% of voters backing the constitutional amendment that supports the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools and public property.

Young has been critical of Ivey, who pledged with his political action committee to have the Ten Commandments displayed within the three months after the amendment was adopted in 2018.

President Donald Trump, during the campaign last summer, expressed his support for public Ten Commandment displays.

“Trump has already made his statement on this,” said Young. “I would appeal to (Ivey) to please do this. I’ll believe it when I see it. She said she would do this in 2018.”

Young said it would be a “great thing for her” if a law is passed before the end of her tenure as governor following the 2026 election.

“I’d like to remind her that 72% voted to make it a part of the Constitution,” Young said. “It’s stronger than a legislature passing a law. They need to go do what the citizens have already voted for.”

Young served as a campaign manager for Moore, the former Alabama State Chief Justice who was removed from office in 2003 for refusing to have a 5,280-pound granite monument with quotes from the Declaration of Independence, national anthem, and from various founding fathers removed from the rotunda of the judicial building.

The monument was topped with two tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

Moore first gained attention as the “Ten Commandments judge” in the early 1990s for having a wood-burned plaque of the ethical and moral list of laws posted behind his bench in Etowah County.

Moore was not immediately available for comment, but Young praised his efforts years ago that drew scrutiny and ridicule to Alabama in the early 2000s.

“Anyone who stands up for the Ten Commandments like Judge Moore did … I haven’t seen anyone do that,” Young said.