Tennessee governor vetoes bill to make the Bible the state's official book

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
(Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The governor of Tennessee on Thursday vetoed a bill that aimed to make the Bible the state's official book.

Republican Bill Haslam said the bill "trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text." The attorney general warned that the bill would violate the U.S. and Tennessee constitutions, but it narrowly passed in both chambers of the Tennessee General Assembly. Sponsors said it was not an endorsement of religion, The Associated Press reports, but a nod to the significance of the Bible in the state's history.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.