Repeal of Oklahoma constitutional provision is long overdue

July 6, 2015, The Oklahoman

An 1876 version of the Blaine Amendment debated in the U.S. Senate explicitly stated that it did not “prohibit the reading of the Bible in any school or institution.” When states adopted Blaine amendments in their constitutions, courts saw no conflict with mandatory Bible reading — from Protestant Bibles. Meir Katz, a legal fellow with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, notes that “nearly all states that adjudicated the question interpreted their Blaine Amendment to permit the exclusive use of the King James Bible in the public schools.”