Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam [official website] vetoed [statement] a controversial bill on Friday that would have made the Bible the state’s official book. Haslam stated that the bill violates the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution as well as Article 1, Section 3 of the Tennessee Constitution which states that no preference shall be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship. The bill passed through the Senate and barely passed through the House last year. The legislature may still override the veto rather easily, as it would require the same number of votes it took to originally pass the bill through the House and Senate.

Throughout the country religion continues to raise controversial First Amendment questions. Earlier this week, a California federal judge required Los Angeles County to remove [JURIST report] a Latin cross from the county seal. In November a judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Arkansas [official website] ruled that a nativity scene on Baxter County Courthouse grounds violated the First Amendment [JURIST report]. In September the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled that a six-foot-tall statue of Jesus may remain [JURIST report] on US Forest Service land. Last May the Ninth Circuit upheld [JURIST report] a Santa Monica city ordinance prohibiting unattended exhibits, including Nativity scenes, in Palisades Park.