SC school students would see Ten Commandments in class, under bill passed by House
Students in South Carolina schools would see the Ten Commandments in their classrooms under a bill passed Wednesday by the GOP-controlled state House.
The effort comes ahead of the upcoming election season and gives Republicans in the House, who are all up for reelection, a conservative win to show to primary voters. Filing for this year’s elections is from March 16-30.
Whether the bill gains any traction in the state Senate, which is not up for reelection this year, remains in question.
Under the legislation, the Ten Commandments will have to be posted on 11-by-14 inch poster with a statement of historical context explaining how the commandments helped shaped American law and government.
“We need to get back to what this country was founded on. And this country was founded on faith and God,” said state Rep. Robby Robbins, R-Dorchester.
Much of the debate focused on whether other historical documents should be allowed to be posted. To move the debate along, the House invoked cloture, which limits the amount of time spent on amendments and how much time could be spent speaking about the bill before a final vote.
Black Democrats wanted to allow Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham Jail, documents about Ida B. Wells, the 13th, 14 and 15th Amendments passed during Reconstruction, What is a Slave on the 4th of July by Frederick Douglass, among other documents, to be listed in the legislation as allowed to be posted in classrooms, even though they already are.
The move for cloture led to a protest from state Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg, to use his final 10 minutes to address the bill by standing silently in the chamber holding a sign that said “Cloture silenced Christian voices. Exodus 14:14.”
That Bible verse says, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”
State Rep. James Teeple, R-Charleston, defended the bill and blasted Democrats who appeared to mock the Ten Commandments and member’s faiths.
“My faith is unwavering in my lord and savior Jesus Christ. To have this bill mocked, to have people up here laughing about our Ten Commandments and this bill, shame on you,” Teeple said. “If you ‘re ever up here mocking our lord and savior when some of us have the conviction to stand up for our faith.”
The bill passed the House mostly along party lines as three Democrats crossed over to vote with Republicans.
“I truly believe that if we had a little more God in this chamber we would be focusing on things that affect the people of South Carolina,” state Rep. Jermaine Johnson, D-Richland said. “Here we are putting up a bill to indoctrinate all of our children to make them feel bad if they don’t believe the things we put up on that wall. That is the definition of hypocrisy.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 11:34 AM with the headline "SC school students would see Ten Commandments in class, under bill passed by House."
