Judge blocks Texas law requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms

Christina Van Waasbergen

(CN) — A federal judge issued an order Wednesday temporarily blocking 11 Texas school districts from complying with a new state law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, finding the law likely violates the First Amendment.

Senate Bill 10, which Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed in June and is set to take effect Sept. 1, requires Texas public schools to conspicuously display a 16-by-20-inch poster of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The law requires the commandments to be written in legible text and match a version of the religious text found on a monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol. School districts may use their own funds to purchase the displays or accept donated displays.

A group of Texas families from a variety of faith backgrounds brought suit challenging the law, arguing it violates children's religious freedom and the right of parents to determine their children's religious upbringing. The families are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of the Western District of Texas sided with the families, issuing a preliminary injunction blocking several school districts from complying with the law while the litigation proceeds.

"Public schools are not Sunday schools,” ACLU attorney Heather Weaver said in a statement, celebrating the ruling. “Today’s decision ensures that our clients’ schools will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed and can learn without worrying that they do not live up to the state’s preferred religious beliefs.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office represents many of the school districts, said he intends to appeal the ruling.

"The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of our moral and legal heritage, and their presence in classrooms serves as a reminder of the values that guide responsible citizenship," Paxton said. "Texas will always defend our right to uphold the foundational principles that have built this nation, and I will absolutely be appealing this flawed decision."

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found an almost identical Louisiana law unconstitutional in June, one day before Abbott signed SB 10 into law, and earlier this month, a federal judge blocked several school districts from complying with a similar Arkansas law.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1980 in the case Stone v. Graham that displaying the Ten Commandments in schools was unconstitutional under the Lemon test, which held that in order to comply with the First Amendment's Establishment Clause, a government action must have a secular purpose and a primary effect that neither enhances nor inhibits religion and must not foster "excessive entanglement" between government and religion.

However, the Supreme Court abandoned the Lemon test in its 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, finding a football coach's First Amendment rights were violated after he was suspended for praying with students after games. In Kennedy, the Supreme Court held that the Establishment Clause should instead be interpreted "by reference to historical practices and understandings."

Paxton's office argued in court that SB 10 is constitutional under the Kennedy ruling, but Biery, a Bill Clinton appointee, disagreed, finding there is "insufficient evidence of a broader tradition of using the Ten Commandments in public education, and there is no tradition of permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms."

Biery also found that the law likely violates the First Amendment's Free Exercise Clause, as "the displays are likely to pressure the child plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious backgrounds and beliefs while at school."