Three southern states are facing the same constitutional and cultural question, but the policies they enacted answer it in three different ways.
Texas requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, Tennessee leaves the decision to local school boards, and North Carolina has no statewide policy.
These different outcomes demonstrate how political institutions can shape policymaking even when states confront the same underlying issue. So, why has North Carolina taken an approach that is different from Texas and Tennessee?
North Carolina’s approach is best explained through a combination of factors: the interaction of political institutions, the state’s political makeup, public opinion, and legal and political risks.
The legal background
A major reason why states are revisiting the issue of Ten Commandments in public schools is because there has been a shift in how the Supreme Court interprets the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms (Stone v. Graham). More than forty years later, the Supreme Court’s decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District shifted the way the Establishment Clause was understood. The ruling resulted in an abandonment of the Lemon test, which came from the 1971 Supreme Court case Lemon v. Kurtzman, and instead emphasized reviewing cases with historical practices and understandings in mind. The Lemon test required that a law or government practice must have a secular purpose, neither advance nor hold back religion, and avoid excessive entanglement with religion.
This change in First Amendment interpretation has created a new legal environment where some state lawmakers believe that displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms is more legally viable than it was before. Texas lawmakers cited Kennedy when supporting their 2025 legislation, but that does not guarantee that the law will survive judicial review (Texas Tribune).
However, the fact that the legal landscape is changing does not — by itself — explain why Texas, Tennessee, and North Carolina produced very different policy outcomes.
The Three States
Texas lawmakers placed the decision in the hands of the state rather than leaving it to local school districts. In 2025, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 10, which required all public elementary and secondary schools to display a qualifying copy of the Ten Commandments in each classroom (NBISD, 2025).
Tennessee, on the other hand, considered both a statewide mandate and a local-control approach. The Senate supported requiring the Ten Commandments displays statewide, but the House supported allowing local school boards to decide if they would allow the display. Since the House and Senate have to agree on the language of a law, they had to compromise — the final law gave local school boards the authority to approve displays. This compromise shows how differences between political institutions can shape the final language of a policy (HB0047/SB0303, 2025-26).
North Carolina took a different path than Tennessee and Texas. In 2013, lawmakers introduced House Joint Resolution 494 and it was immediately referred to the Committee on Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House. The bill received no further action and did not result in a state law regarding Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms. North Carolina’s approach to this policy highlights how a proposal can be introduced, but if it never moves through committee, it never becomes law.
How is North Carolina different?
North Carolina’s lack of a statewide Ten Commandments policy is likely the result of several factors working together: the interaction of political institutions, the state’s political makeup, public opinion, and legal and political risks.
Start with the institutions themselves. North Carolina’s outcome shows how political institutions can shape policy without ever holding a formal vote. Committees decide which proposals get the chance to advance, so their inaction can be just as powerful as their action. This is different from what took place in Tennessee, where a House-Senate disagreement forced a compromise, and Texas, where lawmakers outright passed a statewide mandate. In each of these three states, the institutional process helped determine if the policy moved forward and, most importantly, what form it took.
The state’s political makeup adds another layer to the equation. Unlike Tennessee and Texas — two reliably deep red states — North Carolina is genuinely competitive in elections, and voters have often split their choices between parties. In 2024, Republican candidate Donald Trump won the state’s presidential vote while Democrat Josh Stein won the governor’s race in the same election. That competitive political environment makes divisive and values-based legislation riskier for lawmakers to weigh in on.
Public opinion reinforces that same caution. Nationally, opinions on displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms is nearly split in half — 50% of Americans favor it and 48% oppose it. That split is apparent along party lines — 72% of Republicans favor it and 69% of Democrats oppose it (Pew Research, 2026). In a state where the electorate is unpredictable and divided among the parties, an issue that is that partisan is the type of vote lawmakers have an incentive to avoid.
Finally, there are legal and political risks. Ten Commandments display laws are constitutionally uncertain, giving North Carolina lawmakers one more reason to avoid a mandate that is likely to bring litigation.
*It is important to note that North Carolina did not say “no” to placing the Ten Commandments in schools. The Student Citizen Act of 2001 allows local school administrative units to display historically significant documents that influenced the American legal or governmental system, as long as the display does not promote religion. But, unlike Tennessee, North Carolina has not specifically authorized or mandated Ten Commandments displays in public schools. However, the Ten Commandments are included within a broader law that governs the display of historical documents.