Republican bill requiring display of Ten Commandments in Texas schools fails

In 2005 now governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, won a case over attempts to display the Ten Commandments on a monument by the state capitol building. Photograph: Harry Cabluck/AP

Republicans in Texas failed to pass legislation that would have required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in every public school classroom.

The controversial bill, authored by the Republican state senator Phil King, would have required schools to display the Old Testament text “in a conspicuous place in each classroom”, in a durable poster or frame.