Judge Blocks Texas Law Forcing Ten Commandments Displays in Schools

On Tuesday, a federal judge based in Texas ruled that a state law requiring public independent school districts (ISDs) to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom was likely unconstitutional.

In his order, which was narrowly defined to affect only the districts in question, Judge Orlando Garcia of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas noted that the families suing the ISDs “do not wish their children to be pressured to observe, venerate, or adopt the religious doctrine contained” in the Ten Commandments.

Fifteen families across 14 different school districts in Texas filed the lawsuit back in September. The families come from a wide range of religious and non-religious backgrounds, including atheist, agnostic, Christian, Jewish, Baha’i, and Hindu.

“It is impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays” in Texas schools, Garcia elaborated, justifying his preliminary injunction blocking the placement of signs by saying the state’s law likely violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The law, passed in June by the Republican state legislature and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), requires 16 by 20-inch posters to be placed in every classroom of every public school in the state. It mirrors other recently passed laws in Louisiana and Arkansas, which have also seen legal challenges to their statutes, arguing along the same lines that the laws are unconstitutional violations of the separation between church and state.

This is the second preliminary injunction by a federal judge in the state blocking school districts from displaying the signs. Another ruling, in August, similarly blocked the signs in 11 ISDs across Texas. In total, around 20 percent of Texas’s schools are enjoined from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

It’s likely these rulings will be appealed and eventually find their way to the Supreme Court. The high court ruled over 40 years ago that displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools were unconstitutional, but with a 6-3 conservative majority on the court’s bench today, it’s possible that precedent could be overturned or altered in some way.

Parents involved in this latest ruling celebrated Garcia’s decision to impose an injunction on the law, at least within their own districts.

“I am relieved that as a result of today’s ruling, my children, who are among a small number of Jewish children at their schools, will no longer be continually subjected to religious displays,” said parent Lenee Bien-Willner, one of the plaintiffs in the case. “The government has no business interfering with parental decisions about matters of faith.”

Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, also heralded the ruling.

“All Texas public school districts should heed the court’s clear warning: It’s plainly unconstitutional to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms,” Laser said. “Families throughout Texas and across the country get to decide how and when their children engage with religion — not politicians or public-school officials.”