Other voices: Gun rights vs. religious freedom — the Texas double standard

DALLAS Here in Texas our Republican leaders treat the Constitution as an absolute when they like what it has to say When they don t well then it s an inconvenience to be dealt with This attitude makes for a confusing mess in the state Legislature Take the debate about whether to require general schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms State lawmakers are considering Senate Bill which would require Texas classrooms to display a -inch-by- -inch poster or framed copy of the religious code in large type The first two sections of the First Amendment prohibit the ruling body from making laws establishing religion or preventing its free exercise The separation of church and state is a pillar of our democracy The Supreme Court already weighed in on the question of whether to display the Ten Commandments in citizens schools In it struck down a Kentucky law that would have required Ten Commandments posters in classrooms The author of Senate Bill Sen Phil King R-Weatherford wants that to change He predicted legal challenges to the bill and expressed hope that the bad law of the past would be overturned by the current U S Supreme Court this newspaper announced King declared the new requirement is intended to provide moral clarity and promote national heritage We ve commented before that students need robust moral instruction but posting the Ten Commandments to the wall is a flimsy attempt at that And why the sole interest in the Ten Commandments and not the moral codes of minority faiths While the First Amendment is an annoyance in the state Capitol the Second Amendment is sacrosanct For years Republican lawmakers have moved to prevent even modest actions that might make guns harder to obtain GOP legislators are trying to ban publicly owned venues like Fair Park from prohibiting guns even when the events are privately operated Years ago they passed a law so that Texans can now carry handguns without a license or training It s called permitless carry Wait it s constitutional carry according to the Texas Republicans As we ve seen across the country absolutism is a bad look whether it s coming from the right or the left In a Democratic state representative in Pennsylvania called on the University of Pittsburgh to cancel events featuring conservative speakers using what appeared to be a veiled threat to withhold funding according to news reports But when the speech aligns with their causes progressive politicians become free-speech absolutists Particular Democrats chastised universities for cracking down on unruly pro-Palestinian protests This despite the fact that community institutions can impose reasonable limits on the time place and manner of expression on campus Numerous of our elected leaders are so bogged down by their mission to appease a narrow political base that their first duty is forgotten altogether Governing in the best interests of their constituents and not just the ones from their party The Dallas Morning News Related Articles Trudy Rubin Why the ambassador to Ukraine quit and Trump s phone call with Putin bombed Noah Feldman Supreme Court understands the assignment on birthright citizenship Allison Schrager Even Democrats might like MAGA accounts Erwin Chemerinsky How much power to stop the president should federal judges have Thomas Friedman My first thought when I heard Joe Biden s news