Across the street from the Nebraska State Capitol, a monument to the Ten Commandments stands on the sidewalk outside of St. Mary Catholic Church. Although it’s not on Capitol grounds, as in some states, religion still similarly influences the statehouse.

This year, three Nebraska lawmakers have bills that could infuse more religion into public schools and test the legal limits of the separation of church and state. While the bills might not pass during this legislative session, they reflect a push by Republican state lawmakers nationwide, emboldened by President Donald Trump’s second term and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions that appear to have altered the legal landscape for religion in education.

The Nebraska proposals include requiring the Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” to be displayed in public schools, allowing students to leave during the school day to receive religious instruction and letting schools hire unlicensed religious chaplains to counsel students.

Morality and character

The lawmakers who filed the bills say they aim to restore morality and character among Nebraska students, saying that they believe the nation needs help.

“We have somewhat lost our way on values,” State Senator Glen Meyer of Pender said during a hearing on his bill requiring schools to display the Eisenhower-era national motto about God and trust, Legislative Bill 122.

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University of Nebraska-Lincoln Religious Studies Professor Max Mueller said the bills seem to be steps towards re-establishing a Christian dominance in public schools.

“States are the laboratories of democracy,” he said.

State Senator Dave Murman of Glenvil, during the hearing on his Ten Commandments bill, said LB 691 isn’t designed to “force any religion on our students, but instead to expose our students to the very historical wisdom that inspired our founders.”

He alluded to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2019 that allows the Ten Commandments to be displayed publicly because of historical significance.

“Under that context, perhaps it would be good for our courts to reexamine the topic,” Murman said during the bill’s hearing in the Education Committee last month.

The ‘hostility is gone’

The Cornhusker State is one of 15 states nationally where lawmakers introduced legislation this year requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms. The Nebraska bill is modeled after a recent Louisiana law, which went into effect this year. It’s currently blocked in five K-12 school districts because of litigation challenging its constitutionality.

Louisiana became the first state to add such a requirement in four decades since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that Kentucky’s law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools was unconstitutional. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers joined a handful of other state AGs in a brief defending the Louisiana Ten Commandments law in federal court.

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Proposed religious-related school laws LB 691, by State Senator Dave Murman of Glenvil, requires displaying the Ten Commandments in every Nebraska elementary school classroom and in every middle or high school building.

LB 122, by State Senator Glen Meyer of Pender, requires display of the state and national motto, “In God We Trust,” in prominent areas in schools.

LB 549, by State Senator Loren Lippincott of Central City, allows school districts to employ unlicensed religious chaplains to counsel students.

LB 550, by Lippincott, requires school districts to adopt a policy that excuses students from school to attend religious instruction during the school day.

David Barton, a Texas-based evangelical activist who has spent four decades advocating that church-state separation is a “myth, ” testified in favor of the Ten Commandments bill in Nebraska late last month. Barton also pointed to the shift in the nation’s highest court, saying the “hostility is gone.”

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Washington state public school football coach who prayed with his team on the 50-yard line. Many on the religious right see that case as an opening that signals the legal landscape is more favorable to religious-themed laws.

The opinion signals that the court is moving away from the “Lemon Test” to determine whether the government allows religion in public spaces. The test consists of three parts: The government’s primary purpose must be secular. The government’s actions must not promote or inhibit religion. And the government’s actions must not create excessive entanglement with religion.

ACLU Nebraska testified against the Nebraska proposal, arguing that Nebraska’s Ten Commandments bill is “blatantly unconstitutional” andthat the Louisiana law it’s modeled after “violates the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment.”

“If LB 691 is enacted, it will announce that the state has a favored brand of Christianity and marginalize those who do not subscribe to it,” said Dylan Severino, ACLU Nebraska’s Policy Counsel.

Severino added that Nebraska schools serve students of all faiths and those with none, and their families should feel welcome in their schools.

Tim Royers, The President of the Nebraska State Education Association, the state teachers’ union, told the Examiner that public schools can “promote religious liberty and religious literacy as two fundamental competencies for citizenship” but must work within the framework provided by the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.

“Finding common ground regarding religion is a centuries-old issue in America,” Royer said. “And the battleground shouldn’t be in our public schools.”

An ‘American fight’

Mueller, the UNL religious studies professor, said the culture war fight over the Ten Commandments in classrooms is a “very American fight” and isn’t new, but that the “super Catholic majority” on the U.S. Supreme Court makes some on the religious right eager to face lawsuits because they feel the court is now on their side. The Supreme Court now has a 6-3 conservative majority, with three members appointed during the first Trump administration.

At the end of the hearing on his Ten Commandments bill, Murman echoed Barton’s view on the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which prevents the government from creating a state religion. Murman argued that too many people have misunderstood the Founding Fathers’ “wall of separation.”

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“That document was Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist … was to keep government out of religion, instead of religion out of government,” he said. “In other words, there shouldn’t be an established religion by the government, but the Founding Fathers definitely supported it, and the historical record shows that religion and the Ten Commandments are a big part of the history of the United States.”

Many historians and scholars have sneered at or debunked Barton’s interpretation. But it still has significant influence in conservative circles. Mueller said that while it’s true that “the wall” isn’t directly in the Constitution, some lawmakers’ arguments lack context.

Thomas Jefferson’s interpretation was before the Supreme Court became the arbiter of the Constitution, Mueller said. While “originalists” like former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and current Justice Clarence Thomas claim they’re returning to the Constitution’s original language, it’s still an interpretation.

“Like all documents, whether it’s the Bible, the Declaration of Independence [or] the Constitution, we have the text itself,” Mueller said. “And then we have histories of interpretation.”

St. Mary Catholic Church’s Ten Commandments monument across the street from the Nebraska State Capitol on Feb. 28. 2025. (Juan Salinas II/Nebraska Examiner)

The American paradox

State Senator Loren Lippincott of Central City is behind the proposed law allowing students to be excused for religious instruction and coursework, LB 550. He says the bill would “empower parents by giving them a stronger voice in their children’s education.”

“We aim to support families who seek religious education with their children while strengthening character education in our public schools, fostering a well-rounded and inclusive learning environment for every student,” Lippincott said.

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He proposed a similar bill during the last legislative session, but it was indefinitely postponed, essentially stalled for the year. Lippincott said the difference with his bill this year is that it would cost school districts nothing and that all religious studies would be conducted off school grounds.

Meyer, during his hearing for LB 122, the “In God We Trust” bill, said, “What I’m trying to accomplish is to have a real first step to realizing what we stand for in this country.”

Mueller said simply displaying the Ten Commandments or the trust motto in classrooms and schools wouldn’t lead to more productive classrooms and students.

“If they feel so inclined to place something, a statement of values in the classroom, I would encourage, why not the Bill of Rights?” Mueller asked.

Lippincott said he filed his other bill, allowing schools to employ chaplains in a role similar to counselors, to support children in schools.The proposed law’s language states hiring a chaplain is not an endorsement of a specific religion by the school.

During previous attempts to pass similar legislation, he said it wouldhelp Nebraska schools facing staff shortages, while some opponents said it was another way to insert religion into public schools.

One state that has already taken some of the steps Nebraska’s GOP-dominated, officially nonpartisan Legislature has been considering is Texas. The Lone Star State recently passed legislation that allows chaplains and requires “In God We Trust” signs in schools. Some Texas Republicans have called their 2025 legislative session a “spiritual war.”

The Nebraska Republican Party platform and constitution don’t specifically mention the Ten Commandments. The state GOP’s legislative plan for this session mentions God, but only referring to “God-given talent,” “God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and calling for an end to “the legal ability for [Nebraska Natural Resource Districts] to try and play “God” and attempt to modify the weather.”

‘The furtherance of our Principles’

Nebraska GOP Chairman Eric Underwood said that while the religion in schools bills are not explicitly referenced in the state party’s 2025 plan, he pointed to Article I of the party constitution, which mentions “the furtherance of our Principles.”

“Which could be defined as our faith-based principles and included through our education systems,” Underwood said.

The education section of the GOP platform also says, “We believe moral training based on principles established by God, under whom we profess to be a nation, should be returned to its proper and traditional place in the public schools.”

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It also says, “Mindful of our religious diversity, we reaffirm our commitment to the freedoms of religion and speech guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. We firmly support the rights of all citizens to openly practice the same, including the rights of individuals to engage in voluntary prayer in schools or in any other public institution.”

Underwood added that the party supports the Meyer bill requiring “In God We Trust” in schools. Governor Jim Pillen has said in the past that Catholics and Christians should “have more courage” to stand up for Christian values in the state.

Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said, “Our country was founded on a separation of church and state, [and] the Democratic Party believes in that fundamental principle.”

The Education Committee could decide the fate of each bill this week. Mueller said that when it comes to religion in government, America is a paradox.

“America was founded as a Christian nation, as a Protestant Christian nation that favors Protestant Christians,” Mueller said. “At the same time, America is an experiment … can we all participate equally in democratic institutions and society at large?”