Judge Orders Texas Schools to Remove Ten Commandments Due to Lawsuit

A federal judge ordered a preliminary injunction that requires certain school districts to remove the Ten Commandments this week.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, this order is a “win for religious freedom and church-state separation.” This order was issued after 16 families from several religious and nonreligious backgrounds filed a lawsuit earlier this year.

After Texas Governor Greg Abbott passed Senate Bill 10 earlier this year, many concerns surrounding separation of church and state have risen. Senate Bill 10 requires that the 10 Commandments be present in every classroom across Texas.

The bill was one out of over 300 signed by Gov. Abbott in June of this year.

“Today, I signed critical legislation passed in the 89th Regular Legislative Session that protects the safety of Texans and safeguards the individual freedoms that our great state was founded on," Abbott said on June 21. "Working with the Texas Legislature, we will keep Texas the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”

The plaintiffs, families of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious beliefs, contend that Senate Bill 10 is unconstitutional because it goes against their own faith.

In a press release of American United for Separation of Church and State, many of the plaintiffs state their reasoning for the lawsuit.

“S.B. 10 undermines the separation of church and state as a bedrock principle of my family’s Baptist heritage,” plaintiff Pastor Griff Martin expressed. “Baptists have long held that the government has no role in religion – so that our faith may remain free and authentic. My children’s faith should be shaped by family and our religious community, not by a Christian nationalist movement that confuses God with power.”

Plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan further expressed that her family views the Commandments as sacred, but that those mandated in classroom does not match the texts her family uses.

This order is intended to affect only the districts listed in the case Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District.

Although only these districts are affected by the order, the organizations that represent these families urge other schools to follow suit.

“Public schools – and the State of Texas – have no place pushing their preferred religious beliefs on my children, let alone denigrating my faith, which is about as un-American and un-Texan as one can be,” plaintiff Avrid Chandrakatan urged.