Texas can't put the Ten Commandments in certain school districts'
classrooms, judge says
[August 21, 2025]
By ANDREW DeMILLO
Texas cannot require public schools in Houston, Austin and other select
districts to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge
said Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state’s new
requirement.
Texas is the third state where courts have blocked recent laws about
putting the Ten Commandments in schools.
A group of families from the school districts sought a preliminary
injunction against the law, which goes into effect on Sept. 1. They say
the requirement violates the First Amendment’s protections for the
separation of church and state and the right to free religious exercise.
Texas is the largest state to attempt such a requirement, and U.S.
District Judge Fred Biery's ruling from San Antonio is the latest in a
widening legal fight that's expected to eventually go before the U.S.
Supreme Court.
“Even though the Ten Commandments would not be affirmatively taught, the
captive audience of students likely would have questions, which teachers
would feel compelled to answer. That is what they do," Biery, who was
appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote in the ruling that begins by
quoting the First Amendment and ends with “Amen.”
The ruling prohibits the 11 districts and their affiliates from posting
the displays required under state law. The law is being challenged by a
group of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and
nonreligious families, including clergy, who have children in the public
schools.
A broader lawsuit that names three Dallas-area districts as well as the
state education agency and commissioner is pending in federal court. And
although Friday’s ruling marks a major win for civil liberties groups,
the legal battle is likely far from over.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said he planned to appeal the ruling,
calling it “flawed.”
“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," the Republican said in a statement,
echoing sentiments from religious groups and conservatives who support
the law.
Texas has a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds and won a
2005 Supreme Court case that upheld the monument.
[to top of second column]
|
A granite Ten Commandments monument stands on the ground of the
Texas Capitol, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP
Photo/Eric Gay)
The families who sued were represented by the American Civil
Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and
State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
“The court affirmed what we have long said: Public schools are for
educating, not evangelizing,” Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff
attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement.
A federal appeals court has blocked a similar law in Louisiana, and
a judge in Arkansas told four districts they cannot put up the
posters, although other districts in the state said they're not
putting them up either. In Louisiana, the first state that mandated
the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms, a panel of three
appellate judges in June ruled that the law was unconstitutional.
Biery, the judge, cited both the Louisiana and Arkansas cases in his
55-page ruling. He also includes extensive historical references,
quotes that range from the Founding Fathers to evangelist Billy
Graham, and even a Rembrandt painting of Moses holding the stone
tablets alongside an image of actor Charlton Heston in the film “The
Ten Commandments.”
Having the displays in classrooms, Biery wrote, would likely
pressure children of the parents challenging them into adopting the
state's preferred religion and suppressing their own religious
beliefs. The judge said there are ways students could be taught the
Ten Commandments' history without it being placed in every
classroom.
"For those who disagree with the Court’s decision and who would do
so with threats, vulgarities and violence, Grace and Peace unto
you," he wrote. “May humankind of all faiths, beliefs and
non-beliefs be reconciled one to another.”
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
