A federal district court has temporarily blocked a Texas law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public-school classroom, ruling that the mandate likely violates the First Amendment.
In Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting school districts from enforcing Senate Bill 10, which was set to take effect September 1.
The court found that the law “would likely lead to unconstitutional religious coercion” of students.
“[T]he 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 background and beliefs while at school,” the judge wrote.
Plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan praised the decision, expressing that “children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”
Supporters called the ruling a victory for religious freedom and church-state separation.
Tommy Buser-Clancy, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, called the ruling “a major win that protects the constitutional right to religious freedom for Texas families of all backgrounds.”
Heather L. Weaver of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief added that “public schools are not Sunday schools.”
Rachel Laser, the president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, emphasized that the ruling ensures “Texas families – not politicians or public-school officials – get to decide how and when their children engage with religion.”
Similarly, Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation called the decision a reminder that “the state… has no business telling anyone how many gods to have, which gods to have or whether to have any gods at all.”
