Alabama 10 Commandments Amendment

The Alabama 10 Commandments Amendment, previously called Amendment No. 942, was an amendment to the Alabama Constitution of 1901, later incorporated into Article I, Section 3 of the Alabama Constitution of 2022.

The amendment was ratified by voters in the 2018 general election, having been placed on the ballot as "Statewide Amendment 1" a result of the passage of Act of Alabama 2018-389, sponsored by Senator Gerald Dial (R-District 13) during the 2018 Alabama legislative session. The bill resulted 16 years of lobbying by Dean Young, a former campaign strategist for Roy Moore.

Dial's "Senate Bill 181" was read on January 16 and referred to the Senate Committee on Constitution, Ethics and Elections. It passed its house of origin by a 23-3 vote on February 27, and then went to the Alabama State House of Representatives, where it was referred to the House Committee on Government. Having received a favorable mark-up, it returned to the full chamber for a vote on March 22. It passed the House by a 66-19 vote and was enrolled on March 27.

On the general election ballot, the referendum was described as: "Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, providing for certain religious rights and liberties; authorizing the display of the Ten Commandments on state property and property owned or administrated by a public school or public body; and prohibiting the expenditure of public funds in defense of the constitutionality of this amendment."

Dial later recalled that discussions early on would have required schools to display the 10 Commandments, "But then we were warned by all the legal scholars that it would be unconstitutional and it would just cost the state a lot of money to go all the way to the Supreme Court." (Cason-2024)

The measure proved to be the most popular box on the ballot, with 1,071,716 "yes" votes (71.6%) to 424,663 "no" votes (28.4%). Young celebrated the popular support for the amendment, saying that, "The people we were hearing from are super excited to have this opportunity to go down in history as the first state to acknowledge that we want God, that is the Christian God, in their Constitution." (Sharp-2018)

With the adoption of the recompiled Alabama Constitution of 2022, Amendment 942 was incorporated into Article I, Section 3 on "Religious Freedom". As of 2024, Moore's Foundation for Moral Law, which has offered to defend the constitutionality of such displays in the courts, is unaware of any legal challenges being filed to the 2018 amendment. (Cason-2024)

References

• Sharp, John (November 6, 2018) "Ten Commandments amendment overwhelmingly approved." The Birmingham News
• Cason, Mike (June 20, 2024) "How does Alabama’s law on Ten Commandments compare to Louisiana’s new law?" AL.com

External links

• Constitution of Alabama 2022 at legislature.state.al.us
• Act of Alabama 2018-389 at sos.state.al.us