In the Texas Senate Bill 10, the Ten Commandments, from The Bible (King James Version), are now required to be displayed by all public schools in the state, from elementary to high school. Since the bill has gone into effect on Sept. 1, though, dozens of families and school districts have filed multiple separate lawsuits to block the bill, including a 25-district lawsuit, to no avail.

Senate Bill 10 should be removed from the Texas legislature.

The biggest issue with this bill lies within the Constitution. Article VI of the Constitution states that federal law takes precedence over state law, and the first amendment grants citizens the freedom of religion, promising that the government would separate church and state, not adopting an official religion.

These crucial aspects of the Constitution have been violated by this bill. Two Texas senators have admitted that this bill is unconstitutional, and they are correct. A bill favoring Christianity disregards a 200-year-old document that has run this country, giving way to even more anarchy and corruption than is already present in the state.

But the problems with this bill goes far beyond the Constitution: it alienates students and teachers based on what religion they practice. School should be a safe space for students to comfortably be themselves while learning, but if you are not a Christian, school is no longer that space for you.

Though public schools are subject to this bill, private schools are obviously exempt from it. Families should not have to pay for a private education to escape being marginally persecuted for their religion in an educational space.

Those that support this bill may argue that displaying the Ten Commandments does not hurt anyone, but they are severely misguided. If this bill had been any different — perhaps requiring the Quran or the Tripitaka to be displayed in all public schools — there would have been more protests of the law. Had Christian students been oppressed instead of atheist, Muslim or Islamic students, the law would never have been conceived — but they weren’t.

The freedom of religion is a core principle the United States is built upon. If any other part of the Bill of Rights were violated, there would be hundreds of protests, and the first amendment should get the same treatment. It should not matter who is being affected by this unconstitutional bill — it should be repealed immediately.