Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, speaking to House Speaker Pro Tem Chris Pringle, R-Mobile, on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives on March 12, 2026, in the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Alabama. The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday approved a bill requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in schools. (Anna Barrett/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama House committee on Wednesday approved legislation to require school districts to post the Ten Commandments in different locations.
HB 216, sponsored by Rep. Mark Gidley, R-Hokes Bluff, would require schools to display a poster of the religious document in fifth through 12th-grade classes and within the common areas, such as cafeterias and school libraries, in every school within the district.
“This is strictly a historical reference to remind our students of one of the documents that was one of the foundational principles of the founding of this country,” Gidley told the House Judiciary Committee.
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Several Democrats on the committee expressed concerns about the legislation.
“It feels like we are continuously, especially in the last two years, trying to force Christianity on students no matter what their religion may be,” said Rep. Penni McClammy, D-Montgomery.
Gidley filed the same bill in 2025. It passed the House of Representatives but stalled in the Senate. Earlier this month, the House Education Policy Committee approved the bill with little discussion before it was referred to the Judiciary Committee for consideration on Wednesday.
Alabama approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 to allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public spaces, and federal courts have allowed the document to be displayed for historical, and not religious or moral, context in schools.
In 2024, Louisiana passed a law that required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms, but a federal court last June blocked the law. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision last month but did not rule on whether the law was constitutional.
A federal court on Monday blocked six school districts in Arkansas from enforcing the state’s law that required them to display the Ten Commandments.
The legislation says the Ten Commandments “are a key part of the Judeo-Christian religious and moral tradition that shaped Western Civilization and ultimately the founding of the United States.”
HB 216 requires the display to be contingent on available funding.
Rep. Ontario Tillman, D-Bessemer, asked if the legislation would “allow other religions if a teacher decides to place a different set in their classrooms in the historical sense.”
Gidley said that would not apply because he considers the Ten Commandments is one of the nation’s founding documents.
“Let me remind you that there were no other religions that were part of the founding of our country,” Gidley said.
The bill moves to the full House. There are six days left in the 2026 regular session.
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Author: Ralph Chapoco