Idaho lawmaker wants to ‘cultivate’ morality through mandated public school Bible reading

BOISE – A nationwide effort by Christian conservatives to tear down firewalls between the government and religion took a step forward in Idaho on Thursday, with the introduction of a bill to require Bible reading in all public schools.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, would require verses of the King James Bible to be read daily, “without comment,” in all “occupied” classrooms at public schools, such that the entire Bible would be read over a 10-year period. The proposal would allow teachers to absent themselves from the readings if they have a “conscience” objection, and also allow students to skip participation if they have a note from their parents.

Parents could sue if they believed the law was not being enforced, according to the bill.

“This bill seeks to cultivate morality and encourage good citizenship,” Redman told a House committee Thursday.

The Idaho Family Policy Center, a Christian lobbying group that has also previously written state laws that limit abortion and transgender rights, crafted the Bible bill.

Blaine Conzatti, the group’s president, stressed Idaho’s history with religion during Thursday’s House committee hearing, adding that an Idaho law passed in 1925 required public school Bible reading.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1963 barred school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading in public schools. Teaching the Bible violates the First Amendment’s requirement that the government “maintain strict neutrality, neither aiding nor opposing religion,” the nation’s highest court ruled.

The following year, federal judges in Idaho implemented the U.S. justices’ decision by quashing the earlier state law. However, it remains on the books.

The 1963 decision was one of a number of mid-century liberal Supreme Court decisions that broadened civil liberties and individual rights – and which many conservatives have since sought to undo. Conzatti called the court’s 62-year-old opinion in the case, School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp, an “activist” decision.

Richard Seamon is a constitutional law professor at the University of Idaho. He told the Idaho Statesman by phone that, based on the court’s 1963 ruling, the proposed bill would be plainly unconstitutional.

But the Supreme Court justices in recent years have already undone a number of limits on religion in the public square – like affirming a public school football coach’s right to pray on the field with his players, or requiring school voucher eligibility for religious schools. So the high court may expand on those in the future, Seamon said.

“The trend is to uphold religious practices in the public sector that probably wouldn’t have survived under earlier case law,” he said, noting that the court’s justices in recent years – a majority of which have been appointed by Republican presidents – have focused on the “history and traditions” of the country.

Idaho following lead of Louisiana, Oklahoma

Last year, Oklahoma ordered public schools to read the Bible, and a Louisiana law requires the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools.

“Folks who believe that religion should have a greater role in the public schools are taking this time and this trend of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions to take a run at some of these practices that have been struck down in the past,” Seamon said.

Three Republicans as well as the two Democrats on the House committee were skeptical of the new Idaho legislation.

“This country was settled by people that weren’t moving to religion, they were moving away from state-mandated religion,” Rep. Jack Nelsen, R-Jerome, told the committee. “To me, this picks a particular religion’s Bible, and I am not for advancing this.”

Rep. Dan Garner, R-Clifton, asked Conzatti whether Attorney General Raúl Labrador had given an opinion on the bill. Conzatti declined to respond. A spokesperson for Labrador’s office declined to comment.

Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, the only Black member of the Legislature, said he had many questions about the bill he would address at its expected public hearing.

“I can’t speak for all Black people, but history and tradition tests just really make me nervous,” he said.