Blatantly unconstitutional.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black famously stated in Everson v. Board of Education that “[t]he First Amendment has erected a wall between church and state,” and “[t]hat wall must be kept high and impregnable.”
Government may not adopt or ban instances of religion.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
They might argue the law only recognizes these books as official, and neither establishes religion or prevents others. “Argue” as in if it went to court, because either way it’s definitely bullshit.
Yeah, that’s probably right.
And then the Satanic Temple comes in with a lawsuit forcing Tennessee to “recognize” their literature as well for equality under the law.
As well they should
Turns out, the current SCOTUS has a lot to say about precedence.
There are a lot of blatantly unconstitutional things that the SCOTUS is OK with.
Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: else ye have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 6:1
For those who don’t know, like me, the Aitken Bible was the first English edition of the Bible published in the US. It was approved by the Congress of the Confederation (the government before the Constitution was signed) in 1782.
Congress only issued an approval because the ongoing British blockade during the Revolutionary war was stopping Bibles from being imported how they had been previously and that was leading to protesters saying maybe this whole fight for independence isn’t worth it. It was a wartime PR move.
Also worth noting that this approval happened years before the Bill of Rights was a thing.
We will soon have only 2nd amendment left in the constitution
Half of the 2nd amendment.
Church and state? No, churchstate. Bad plan, we already did this.
Tennessee, man. Hit after hit lately. Arkansas is getting jealous.
Feels bad, man.