On June 26, 2026, the Texas State Board of Education approved a required reading list for public schools, including selections from the Bible. The 9-5 vote, split along Republican and Democrat party lines, stems from a 2023 state law that required Texas to create a list with at least one mandatory reading per grade level.

Ultimately, the board produced a list of more than 200 readings, which include about a dozen biblical texts. It also requires material from literary and public figures such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Martin Luther King Jr. and Margaret Thatcher.

Critics argue that mandatory Bible readings in public schools violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars the government from “an establishment of religion.” These opponents maintain that the readings impermissibly promote religion, particularly Christianity, while violating the free exercise rights of students who belong to other religions, or none.

Litigation over the use of the Bible in American public schools began over 150 years ago – with the outcome often depending on a lesson’s purpose.

Courts, Bible and public schools

The first reported case on the Bible in U.S. public schools was in 1872, when the Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed a ban against religious instruction in public classrooms. Conversely, 50 years later, the Supreme Court of Georgia upheld an ordinance to start school days with readings from the King James Version of the Bible.

Bible reading first reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1963, in School District of Abington Township v. Schempp. This case, from Pennsylvania, was consolidated with a similar dispute from........

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