Back in the Reagan era, these moments played for laughs. But today, the collision of faith and public life is no joke—especially in Alabama, where Republican lawmakers deep in the Bible Belt are attempting to turn religious devotion into state policy.

In the opening weeks of the 2025 legislative session, GOP leaders introduced bills that push the boundaries of church-state separation, setting the stage for inevitable legal fights.

Among the proposals are mandates for the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools and requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and be given an opportunity to participate in daily prayer or risk their school losing 25% of its state funding.

It’s the largest potential clawback schools have ever faced.

“I am not aware of a situation where the State Superintendent has ever had a clawback of this magnitude for violations of state law,” said Ryan Hollingsworth, executive director with the School Superintendents of Alabama.

Critics argue the bills are part of a broader national push to enshrine Christian nationalism in government; proponents counter that they are simply restoring “common sense” values to classrooms.

“Rather than wasting resources advancing the Christian Nationalist agenda of imposing one narrow set of religious beliefs on students, Alabama legislators would better serve all Alabamians by working to improve the state’s public schools to ensure all students have the resources needed to thrive,” said Nik Nartowicz, lead policy counsel at the Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Alabama leaders, however, say they are doing what the voters want and are confident the laws will be upheld by the courts. The school prayer bill is a constitutional amendment that would have to go before voters for approval, and GOP officials believe it would pass with 70 to 80 percent support.

“I mean, we are still Alabama,” said Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville. “We need to act like it. I think that’s part of what makes us the state we are. I understand other groups may not agree with it or like it, and I get it.”

Constitutional clash

Americans United and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) are already challenging the legislation, arguing that both measures violate constitutional protections—even after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District emboldened conservatives to push for more religious expression in public schools.

The Lemon test required that a law or policy meet a three-prong standard by having a secular purpose, not advance or inhibit religion, and avoid excessive government entanglement with religion.

The Kennedy decision overturned the longstanding Lemon test, a legal standard established in 1971 to determine whether a government action violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The 6-3 ruling replaced it with an approach based on “historical practices and understandings,” which some conservatives interpret as a green light for religious expression in public settings.

Alabama State Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, believes House Bill 231, the measure requiring a Judeo-Christian prayer in schools, will survive legal scrutiny because of the Kennedy ruling.

But constitutional experts aren’t so sure.

Derek Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, says lawmakers are overestimating the Kennedy decision’s scope.

“All the other precedent prohibiting school officials from engaging in religious activity or coercing students to participate in religion remains good law,” he said. “That means there is no legal support for many of the laws states are currently enacting or pushing regarding prayer or the display of the Ten Commandments.”

National fight

Alabama is hardly alone in its push to lower the wall between church and state. Louisiana became the first state to mandate Ten Commandments displays in public schools last June, but a federal judge blocked the law in November. The case is now before the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Texas and Montana are considering similar measures, waiting to see how the Louisiana law fares in court.

“Everyone knows that forcing schools to display the Ten Commandments is about pushing religion, and anyone saying otherwise is being dishonest,” said Ryan Jayne, senior policy counsel with FFRF. “The fact that lawmakers are simultaneously pushing for religious displays and mandated prayers undermines any argument that they are interested in history rather than religion.”

Polling from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that a majority of Republicans identify as Christian nationalism sympathizers or adherents, and many of them say they would prefer a primarily Christian nation. Former President Donald Trump has pledged to bring prayer back into schools, while Texas GOP leaders have outright denied the existence of church-state separation.

Greg Davis, president of the Alabama Citizens Action Program—a nonprofit representing 3,500 churches—says the legislature is simply responding to the concerns of deeply religious constituents.

“Seems as though they are responding to what is seen as a denial of what was once commonly accepted sense—like the recognition of the Ten Commandments, praying and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools,” Davis said. “It is a shame that the Legislature has to spend time on such issues. But my take is that they do so as a response to a secular-leaning agenda to strip culture of what was once common and non-controversial values in Alabama and America.”

But secular organizations say Alabama still has to abide by the Constitution.

“The U.S. Constitution’s promises of church-state separation and religious freedom mean public school students and their families—not politicians or school officials—must be free to decide if, when, and how they engage with religion,” said Nartowicz. “This proposal is clearly unconstitutional and would violate students’ religious freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court more than 60 years ago barred public schools from forcing children to listen to daily prayers.”

They also say that one thing is certain: the courts will have the final say.

“Students have a right to a secular public education system, and this multi-pronged attempt to inject state lawmakers’ personal religious views into Alabama public schools must be rejected by anyone who respects religious liberty,” Jayne said.