You might have noticed a recent column in the News & Observer from Gene Nichol of the UNC Law School’s Poverty Center. Nichol takes Republican legislators to task for passing legislation designed to ensure that the Ten Commandments are posted in North Carolina’s public schools.

There’s one problem with his argument; it’s not true. Since I’ve heard no response from N&O editorial page editors, I offer below the letter to the editor submitted to the newspaper the day Nichol’s column appeared:

I’m shocked — shocked! — to learn that an esteemed legal scholar such as UNC’s Gene Nichol would have trouble reading a basic piece of legislation.

Nichol’s July 11 column criticizes North Carolina legislators for passing a bill that allows the public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

There’s just one problem. The new law, called the Founding Principles Act, does no such thing. State law permitted display of the Ten Commandments before legislators took any steps this year to promote education about the founding principles.

The Ten Commandments appear in the new legislation only because the Founding Principles Act amends sections of state law both before and after the provision that offends Professor Nichol. He can find the existing provision in North Carolina’s G.S. 115-C81(g)(3b).

Had he read the bill — and one must assume he didn’t, since he made such a basic error — he would have seen that the Founding Principles Act makes no change to that provision.

If the professor wishes to assign blame for that provision, rather than simply carp about an “ideological forced march,” perhaps he should discover which Democratic legislator sponsored it in some previous legislative session.

Review the Founding Principles Act for yourself here. Note that the only changes to existing law are indicated by strike-throughs and underlined language.