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WASHINGTON —U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation on Tuesday to strengthen the Equal Access Act, a law that prohibits public secondary schools that receive federal funds from discriminating against groups on the basis of political or religious belief. Sen. Cornyn’s bill will expand the scope of the Equal Access Act to elementary schools. "The Equal Access Act applies only to postsecondary schools. It is time that equal access be extended to elementary schools as well, and that is why I introduce this legislation today," Sen. Cornyn said. "I know that senators will be following closely the Supreme Court’s consideration of the Ten Commandments cases and the people’s right to display our nation’s most revered documents in public squares across America . Regardless of the outcome of those cases, I hope that senators will also support this effort to extend equal access to all of our nation’s public schools." Sen. Cornyn’s legislation comes as the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral arguments on Wednesday morning in two cases involving the right of state and local governments to erect a public display of the Ten Commandments. One of those cases, Van Orden v. Perry, involves a public display at the state capitol grounds in Texas . Greg Abbott, Cornyn’s successor as Texas Attorney General, is scheduled to argue the case.The two cases are reminiscent of the Supreme Court’s consideration last year of the Pledge of Allegiance – which contains the words "under God" – in the matter of Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow. The Court rejected the challenge to the Pledge of Allegiance in that case, but strictly on procedural grounds.The legislation is a follow-up to a hearing Sen. Cornyn chaired last year as head of the Constitution subcommittee to examine hostility toward religious expression in the public square. Cornyn held the hearing to focus on examples of hostility toward private expressions of faith in the public square, as well as discrimination against religious expression in government speech. The hearing also examined the views of the Founders regarding the free exercise of religion and the inconsistent jurisprudence in the area of religious expression."The Pledge of Allegiance, like the Ten Commandments, remains under attack and under danger of forced removal from our public square by judicial fiat," Cornyn said.He added that the hearing he chaired last year "was important, because it reminded us of an even broader, more systemic problem caused by the Supreme Court’s previous rulings, than just these disturbing attacks on the Pledge of Allegiance and the Ten Commandments – an unjustifiable hostility to religious expression in public squares across America . Just as there is bipartisan agreement on the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance, so should there be bipartisan agreement that government should never be hostile to expressions of faith."When introducing the legislation to strengthen the Equal Access Act, Sen. Cornyn said he’s grateful for the work of Liberty Legal Institute, headed by Kelly Shackleford in Texas, which followed up on their testimony at the hearing last year by filing a 51-page report with the subcommittee last October. The Institute’s report documented additional cases of hostility to religion in the public square, and noted the existence of a nationwide campaign to remove religious expressions from the public square – namely, liberal organizations in Washington that actively litigate against equal access for religious organizations in public schools, against school choice programs that give needy students equal access to parochial and nonsectarian schools alike, and against voluntary, student-led religious expression.