Federal Judge Orders Texas School Districts to Remove Ten Commandments Displays

Judge ruled Texas’s new Ten Commandments display law was likely unconstitutional and ordered districts to remove the posters by early December.

FILE - A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. In motions filed Monday, July 8, 2024, parents challenging a new Louisiana law requiring that the Ten Commandments be posted in public school classrooms are asking a federal court to block implementation of it while their lawsuit progresses — and before the new school year starts. AP Photo/John Bazemore, File

A federal judge in Texas has ordered several public school districts to remove classroom displays of the Ten Commandments and barred them from posting new ones, ruling that a new state law requiring the displays likely violates the First Amendment.

In a Nov. 18 preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia found that Senate Bill 10—which mandates large, readable Ten Commandments posters in every public-school classroom—runs afoul of the Establishment Clause’s prohibition on government endorsement of religion.

The ruling requires the defendant districts to take down the displays by Dec. 1 and later certify their compliance.

“Displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in S.B. 10 violates the Establishment Clause,” Garcia wrote.

He rejected a request from the defendant districts to narrow the injunction just to specific classrooms or schools attended by the child-plaintiffs in the lawsuit that challenged Texas’s Ten Commandments display requirement.

The judge noted that, because students move between classrooms and campuses for required and extracurricular activities, “It is impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent Plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining Defendants from enforcing S.B. 10 across their districts.”

The lawsuit was filed in September by 15 families from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, and other backgrounds.

The families argued that the state-mandated postings pressured their children to adopt or appear to endorse a specific religious teaching.

While the plaintiffs practice different faiths, Garcia said, they share one objection: “Plaintiffs do not wish their children to be pressured to observe, venerate, or adopt the religious doctrine contained in the Ten Commandments.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the Texas Attorney General’s office, which is defending S.B. 10, for comment.

Statewide Push to Install Displays

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed S.B. 10 in June, requiring each classroom to display a framed English translation of the Ten Commandments at least 16-by-20 inches in size and legible from anywhere in the room.

The measure was part of a broader package of bills that includes expanding school choice, giving parents a bigger say in what materials their children are exposed to in school libraries, and prohibiting gender ideology in K–12 schools.

“Today, Texans will realize the results of many of these promises,” Abbott said on Sept. 1, when S.B. 10 and several other laws went into effect.

“The laws we passed reflect our values: safer communities, stronger schools, and a future built on freedom, faith, and hard work.”

Supporters of S.B. 10 say the Ten Commandments reflect foundational principles of American law and history and so should be displayed.

“The focus of this bill is to look at what is historically important to our nation educationally and judicially,” said Texas state Rep. Candy Noble, a Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, after it passed the House earlier this year.

Opponents say it amounts to government-sponsored religious messaging.

“Our schools are for education, not evangelization,” Chloe Kempf, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, said in a statement praising Garcia’s order.

“This ruling protects thousands of Texas students from ostracization, bullying, and state-mandated religious coercion.”

In an earlier case, a federal judge in San Antonio temporarily blocked enforcement of S.B. 10 for 11 different districts.

In that Aug. 20 ruling, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery called the law “plainly unconstitutional” and said it “crosses the line from exposure to coercion.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has appealed that ruling to the Fifth Circuit.

He has vowed to continue defending the law, calling the Ten Commandments a cornerstone of America’s moral and legal heritage.

On Tuesday, Paxton announced separate lawsuits against two school districts for refusing to display donated versions of the Ten Commandments that meet the law’s specifications.

“No district may ignore Texas law without consequence,” he said in a statement, adding that Texas voters “expect the legal and moral heritage of our state to be displayed in accordance with the law.”