Texas Landmark Religious Freedom Law Goes Into Effect

agreed. Freedom to oppress and groom is all they're worried about. (See the removal of rights and the grooming of kids with this bill)

 

OK Groomer

 

Wait that @CCorn ?

My bad. That dude is joking.

 

He's joking lol. He's being sarcastic.

 

You never can tell now days.

 

Pretty sure he's being sarcastic.

 

Right. Sarcasm is hard to convey on the internet, especially when there are many that hold the opinions he was posting sarcastically.

@CCorn

 

I don't think people are reading this law right. It is not a vehicle to put whatever religious message you want into schools. It is only to deliver the national motto.

Before this law, here's what this snippet of the Education Code looked like (with the section to be edited in bold):

Section 1.004 would be edited to instead read (underline is new text):

DISPLAY OF NATIONAL MOTTO.

(a) A public elementary or secondary school or an institution of higher education as defined by Section 61.003 must display in a conspicuous place in each building of the school or institution a durable poster or framed copy of the United States national motto, "In God We Trust," if the poster or framed copy meets the requirements of Subsection (b) and is:
(1) donated for display at the school or institution; or
(2) purchased from private donations and made available to the school or institution.

(b) A poster or framed copy of the national motto described by Subsection (a) must contain a representation of the United States flag centered under the national motto and a representation of the state flag.

(c) A public elementary or secondary school and an institution of higher education may accept and use private donations for the purposes of Subsection (a).
​

I've been musing about this law in the shower. Sending durable framed posters to a school is only a modest cost, so I'm thinking of sending some. Because the law says "must" I think a lot of mischief can be wrought. My main reservation is that I'd probably have to be ready to sue if my posters were not displayed as required, and I'm not lawyered up.

I don't think you'll be able to knock this law down with freedom of religion arguments because it relies on a federal law creating the national motto. We would first need to abolish that 1956 law as unconstitutional. Until that happens, the phrase is more patriotic than religious in the courts' eyes.

You also can't use the law to say other religious things like Allahu Akbar or Jesus Saves or Hail Satan because they are not the national motto. But the law only specifies that the poster must have the motto and representations of the US and Texas flags and is otherwise silent about the design. It doesn't say it can't have other words or pictures.

However, I think some clever lawyers would find a way to disqualify submissions that ran afoul of other rules about speech in school. So, a pornographic image, like I suggested earlier, would probably get knocked out as prurient without challenging the basis of this law, as would something overtly violent. But other ironic designs would probably be defensible and would have to be displayed per the law.

I'm thinking the painting Trail of Tears by Robert Lindneux (which is in public domain) as a background for the motto. I'm also partial to the Flying Spaghetti Monster along with the motto and flags. In a lawsuit about religious discrimination, a court had decided that FSM was a parody and not a real religion, so displaying the image would not be state-sponsored religious speech in a school. I'm looking for some good Uncle Sam satire. Lots of things you could do.

Of course, the legislature has an easy counter to any trolling. They can pass a new bill to amend this law to specify what imagery or other words are allowed. Then the only poster you could submit would be the patriotic ones. However, the next legislative session ends in May 2023, and then they don't meet again until Jan 2025. Unless Abbott wants to call a special session, I think we can get two school years adorned with troll posters.

 

Your dedication to sarcasm is quite impressive.

DD

 

You guys are looking at this all wrong. Putting this phrase back in school will make our schools safer. God has been lost from school and now he/she/it is back and our kids will now be safer.

 

Yeah, can use all those Thoughts and Prayers shields now.

Really gonna sort it out.

DD

 

To be fair, thoughts and prayers shields don't really work since they are stated after the fact. If we would declare thoughts and prayers prior, then shield would be put in place to protect our kids. No worries though, now god is back in school so no need for premature thoughts and prayers.

 

The funny thing is that this is going to blow up in their face. Most kids in 2022 are not really indoctrinated early by religion.
As soon as these kids hear that adults believe in rapture or someone being raised from the dead, they are going to laugh and mock it for being insane. It isn’t going to be exposed to them by scholarly Jesuits or professors either, it will be rednecks that sound every bit as ignorant and stupid as they are.

Then these same idiots are going to be upset when Muslims and The Church of Satan use the same law as the “Christians” that will be involved in this type of thing.

 

I’m pretty sure Ccorn is playing but yes you’re right it is hard to tell these days.

 

Is that motto still on our currency? I havent looked lately because I have gone fully digital.

 

There actually is a Satanist sending posters. There are three requirements. The poster must have "In God We Trust", the Texas Flag, and the U.S. flag. There can be nothing else on the poster. However, there is no requirement "In God We Trust" must be in English. He is having it printed in Arabic. The other thing is the school MUST display the posters if they are given. I created one with In God We Trust in binary. I'm looking to get them printed here in Dallas.