Jamie Burger's bill aims to mandate Ten Commandments in Missouri's public, charter school classrooms

Missouri's District 27 Sen. Jamie Burger recently introduced legislation that would require all public and charter schools in the state to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Senate Bill 594 would make each school district's board of education exhibit 11-by-14 inch — at minimum — displays in each classroom and school building with the text as the central focus in a "large, readable font." SB 594 is identical to SB 643, introduced by District 33 Sen. Brad Hudson, and similar to House Bill 34, introduced by Poplar Bluff Republican Hardy Billington, who represents District 152 in the House of Representatives.

The bill would allow school districts to purchase the display themselves, although not required, or have the signage or money to purchase them donated. However, it's not clear at present what the requirement entails if donations aren't secured and the district doesn't want to use its funds to purchase the displays, as Burger said the state would not be responsible for providing them.

No penalties are mentioned for schools that don't follow the legislation, although those will likely be added later. While there aren’t any provisions in place to enforce the law in the bill’s current state, Burger said he expects it would be enforced by "the general public wanting it to happen."

“When they ask for donated funds to buy Ten Commandments signs, or whatever it may be, I think people are going to be shocked at the amount of money that they will receive to purchase these. I don’t think there will ever be any need for the district to spend funds on this,” Burger said. "... How will it be enforced by the general public? When they donate the money and have to deal with the public and talk with the school board, that's how it will be enforced, by the people that live in the district.”

Burger introduced the bill because he said he believes the absence of prayer in schools has led to the rise of school shootings, although there is no evidence to back those claims. He believes displaying the Ten Commandments could help make Christian prayer a normal practice in schools and reduce the number of violent crimes committed in them.

"I think if we can return prayer to our schools, I think that helps everyone get back in," Burger said. "I think our forefathers thought that prayer should be in buildings. If you look at all the old buildings, there's the Ten Commandments, and there's all kinds of Bible and Scripture readings.”

Burger also said he hasn't been met with much opposition to the legislation, and he believes 95% of Missourians would support the practice.

"Some people are slightly opposed, but not really vocally opposed," Burger said. "... I talked to several people in the district and they seem to agree. I think we still have separation of church and state, but there's nothing wrong with the display of the Ten Commandments."

Burger's bill follows in the footsteps of states such as Louisiana, which passed the law last year. Louisiana's requirement was blocked by a federal judge, but is being appealed by the state. Other states such as Oklahoma, Kentucky and Texas have filed similar legislation.

Each state attempting to implement religious requirements has been consistently met with legal challenges from entities such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In 1980, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in the case of Stone v. Graham, that Kentucky's attempt to mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools was unconstitutional and violated the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prevents the government from establishing a national religion or favoring one religion over another. Additionally, state-sponsored prayer in schools was ruled unconstitutional in Engel v. Vitale in 1962 and Abingdon School District v. Schempp in 1963.

"Public schools are meant to provide students with equal access to education, free from discrimination based on religion, race and ethnicity, or the official endorsement of any religion," the ACLU of Missouri said in a statement to the Southeast Missourian. "The use of political power to force students to adopt the preferred religious beliefs of a state senator is the proselytization of our children and a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause."

The Supreme Court used the Lemon test — a three-prong test that determines whether a statute violated the Establishment Clause — to determine the constitutionality of Kentucky’s mandate.

The Lemon test requires a statute to satisfy all three parts. The “Purpose Prong” states a statute must have a secular legislative purpose, the “Effect Prong” states the primary effect must not advance or inhibit religion, and the “Entanglement Prong” states the law must not result in excessive entanglement between church and state.

The Lemon test was used for nearly four decades before being "broadly abandoned" by the Supreme Court following the 2022 decision in the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which ruled in favor of a high school football coach who wanted to pray with his team after games.

Burger acknowledged that, if passed, the bill will almost certainly face legal challenges and the state will likely appeal. While no fiscal analysis has been done to determine how much the potential appeal would affect the state’s taxpayers, Burger said he anticipates that will come when the bill goes through the committee process.

“(Fiscal analysis) should come later on as we get closer to the bill numbers. There's just so much going on right now that we just don't have those,” Burger said. “... If we, in Missouri, would post this and it would stop one school shooting, how would you value that? How would you measure that cost?”

Burger declined to comment on whether he would support similar legislation for other religious doctrines, but said those who disagree with a Ten Commandments display can simply ignore it.

“We have prayer before every session in the house and senate up here, and there are some people that just don't agree with that,” Burger said. “But they stay in the back until the prayer is over, then they come out onto the floor. I think this is the same way. If you see the Ten Commandments in a public building and you don't want to read them, don't read them. Just ignore them.”