Oklahoma school official Ryan Walters hit with lawsuit over Trump Bible mandate scheme
Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters has been hit with a lawsuit after mandating that all Oklahoma public schools carry the Bible in what initially started as a scheme to spend taxpayer dollars on Trump Bibles.
Walters plans to spend as much as $3 million in taxpayer dollars to furnish Oklahoma’s already struggling public school system with Bibles and force its teaching. It’s not the first time he has attempted to dictate the state’s school curriculum. Last year, he tried to force teachers to refrain from using the word “race” when teaching The Tusla Race Massacre to students. Earlier this year, he tried to overstep his authority to ban the books The Glass Castle and Kite Runner from Edmond’s High School. He claimed the books were “pornographic” because they mentioned topics relating to sex and abuse. By his line of reasoning, the Bible would also be pornographic, given it is filled with instances of incest, rape, and prostitution.
Yet, he now wants to force every public school to carry Bibles and spend taxpayer dollars meant for other purposes on the initiative. Not only is he clearly violating the separation of church and state, but the whole thing started as a scheme to line Donald Trump’s pockets.
Lawsuit calls out Ryan Walters’ Trump Bible scheme
On October 17, Oklahoma teachers and parents filed a lawsuit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court urging the court to stop Walters’ unconstitutional Bible initiative. Several of the plaintiffs identify as Christians themselves but believe they should have “sole responsibility to decide how and when” their children learn about the Bible. Additionally, the lawsuit points out how the mandate was initially developed as a scheme to put Trump Bibles in schools.
Initially, the mandate included particular guidelines for the Bibles that could be put in the schools. It demanded that they only be the King James Version and include copies of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, and the Pledge of Allegiance. Not many Bibles meet these requirements, except one: Trump Bibles. Trump started selling the $59.99 Bibles earlier this year as one of his many merchandise initiatives. It includes all the historical documents listed in the Bible mandate and is the King James version. Thus, the mandate left no choice but for the state to choose Trump Bibles as its supplier.
It didn’t take long for individuals to figure out what Walters was doing and call him out for his scheme to allocate taxpayer dollars to support Trump. The state eventually backed down and removed the oddly specific requirements, but the lawsuit ensures parents and officials won’t forget the initial purpose of the entire mandate. The uncovering of the scheme should’ve been enough to immediately strike down the mandate. Additionally, the lawsuit argues that Walters is once again overstepping boundaries, stating he doesn’t even have the authority to force public schools to use the Bible as instructional material.
The latest suit is the second one brought forward in response to Walters’ mandate. A man named Joseph Price also filed a lawsuit arguing the mandate violated the U.S. and Oklahoma Constitutions since it is equivalent to the government endorsing or promoting one religion and religious doctrine in public schools. There have already been prior landmark court cases in which the Supreme Court barred a school from holding mandatory Bible reading or requiring copies of the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped officials who believe they’re above the law and Constitution from continually trying to bring the Bible and religious indoctrination back to public schools.
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