Professor Michael Helfand Quoted in "Fifth Circuit Allows Texas to Require Ten Commandments in Classrooms" -- Washington Post

Professor Michael A. Helfand is quoted in the Washington Post article "Fifth Circuit Allows Texas to Require Ten Commandments in Classrooms." The article examines the ruling in Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District that a Texas law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms does not violate the First Amendment.

Excerpt from "Fifth Circuit Allows Texas to Require Ten Commandments in Classrooms"

Michael A. Helfand, a law professor at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law who is an expert in church-state law, said the court was right to look to how this practice would have been viewed at the founding of the country but said the court's answer to that question was wrong.

"The historical record provides evidence that when government acts to manipulate the religious preferences of its citizens, it violates the Establishment Clause. And requiring the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom should have been interpreted as an attempt to do just that," Helfand said.

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