The ruling follows a lawsuit filed in September by 15 families of different faith backgrounds, claiming the new law violated the First Amendment.
SAN ANTONIO — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered multiple Texas school districts to remove recently installed Ten Commandments displays from their classrooms, marking another major legal setback to a new state law.
The ruling comes as part of a sweeping lawsuit filed Sept. 22 by 15 multifaith and nonreligious families, who argue that Senate Bill 10, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year, violates the First Amendment by forcing religious doctrine onto more than 5.5 million public school students statewide.
U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia issued the preliminary injunction Tuesday, ordering the defendant districts to remove the displays by Dec. 1 and prohibiting them from posting new ones while the case proceeds. In his order, Garcia wrote that “displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in S.B. 10 violates the Establishment Clause,” adding that it would be “impractical, if not impossible,” for families to avoid the religious messages without halting enforcement across entire districts, according to the ACLU of Texas.
The injunction applies directly to the 16 districts named in the complaint: Comal, Georgetown, Conroe, Flour Bluff, Fort Worth, Arlington, McKinney, Frisco, Northwest, Azle, Rockwall, Lovejoy, Mansfield and McAllen ISDs. But civil-liberties groups behind the lawsuit urged all Texas school districts to stop posting the displays, warning that the Constitution — not S.B. 10 — governs religious freedom in classrooms.
In the original filing, families from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Baha’i, Humanist and atheist backgrounds said the law forces their children to read and internalize a specific, Protestant version of the Ten Commandments, which S.B. 10 requires to be displayed in 16-by-20-inch posters legible across every classroom. Many parents said the state-mandated text conflicts with their own beliefs, traditions or nonreligious values, and pressures their children to conform in order to avoid ostracization at school.
Some Jewish families noted that the law mandates language that differs from Jewish scripture, while nonreligious parents objected to the posters’ religious authority and references to mature topics such as adultery. Even some Christian parents said the displays undermine their ability to guide their children’s faith development independently.
The lawsuit alleges that all 16 districts either posted the displays or publicly confirmed plans to do so, even after another federal judge blocked the law in August in a separate case, calling S.B. 10 “plainly unconstitutional.”
Several districts used donated posters; Frisco ISD purchased more than 4,800 copies. Mansfield ISD told parents that teachers could not refuse to display them.
Civil liberties groups hail ruling as a major constitutional win
The families are represented by the ACLU of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.
“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,” plaintiff Lenee Bien-Willner said.
Chloe Kempf, staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, said the decision “protects thousands of Texas students from ostracization, bullying, and state-mandated religious coercion,” adding that every district is “now on notice that implementing S.B. 10 violates their students’ constitutional rights.”
While the injunction currently applies only to the named districts, advocates say districts statewide are legally obligated to halt implementation of S.B. 10. Another hearing is expected as the case advances toward a final ruling on the law’s constitutionality.