A federal district court in Texas temporarily blocked a new state law on Wednesday that would have required public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, ruling that Texas Senate Bill 10, set to take effect Sept. 1, likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.

The lawsuit was originally filed in late June by several families after Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10 into law. Parents argued the measure intruded on their rights to guide their children’s religious education and forced religious mandates in public classrooms.

The ruling halts school districts from implementing the measure, which mandated a 16-by-20-inch poster or framed copy of a specific English version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.

Federal judge in Texas cites First Amendment concerns

In his decision, Biery wrote that requiring the displays could amount to unconstitutional religious coercion, pressuring students into religious observance and suppressing their own beliefs.

“[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,” Biery stated.

Plaintiffs and ACLU advocates welcome decision

The plaintiffs included Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious families with children in Texas public schools. They were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and pro bono counsel from Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

Plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan called the decision a win for parents’ rights: “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”

Heather L. Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said the ruling protects inclusivity in schools. “Public schools are not Sunday schools,” Weaver said.

Texas AG vows to appeal ruling on Ten Commandments

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton defended the law and said the state will appeal the court’s decision.

“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. Texas will always defend our right to uphold the foundational principles that have built this nation, and I will absolutely be appealing this flawed decision,” Paxton said in a statement.

A federal judge has blocked Texas from requiring Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms, citing First Amendment concerns.

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SAN ANTONIO — Texas cannot require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom, a judge said Wednesday in a temporary ruling against the state’s new requirement, making it the third such state law to be blocked by a court.

A group of Dallas-area families and faith leaders 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 wrote in the 55-page ruling that began with quoting the First Amendment and ended with “Amen.”

The lawsuit names the Texas Education Agency, state education Commissioner Mike Morath and three Dallas-area school districts as defendants.

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.

Although Friday’s ruling marked a major win for civil liberties groups who say the law violates the separation of church and state, the legal battle is likely far from over.

Religious groups and conservatives say the Ten Commandments are part of the foundation of the United States’ judicial and educational systems and should be displayed. Texas has a Ten Commandments monument on the Capitol grounds and won a 2005 Supreme Court case that upheld the monument.

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.

Ruling cites “clear constitutional violation” as state plans further appeal

In a decision issued August 4, 2025, a federal judge blocked enforcement of Arkansas Act 573, a new law requiring every public school classroom in the state to prominently display the Ten Commandments. The ruling granted a preliminary injunction requested by a coalition of parents and students from four school districts, halting implementation of the law just one day before it was set to take effect.

The plaintiffs, who are Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, atheist, and agnostic, argued that the mandated display violates the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks agreed, writing that the law amounts to “the official promotion of religious doctrine” in a setting where students are legally compelled to attend.

Arkansas Act 573 directed public school districts to post a 16-by-20-inch version of the Ten Commandments—specifically from the King James Bible—in every classroom and library, with the text required to be legible “from anywhere in the room.” The posters could be funded privately or through donations, and unlike Louisiana’s similar 2024 law, no historical explanation or curriculum tie-in was required.

The judge found that the law failed constitutional muster under both longstanding Supreme Court precedent and more recent decisions. Citing the Supreme Court’s 1980 ruling in Stone v. Graham, which struck down a nearly identical Kentucky law, Brooks wrote, “This case begins and ends with Stone,” concluding that Arkansas’s statute serves “no educational function” and instead aims “to induce schoolchildren to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey” the commandments.

The State of Arkansas argued that the law was consistent with historical practices and was meant to reflect the Ten Commandments’ influence on U.S. legal traditions. But the court rejected this rationale, relying on expert historical testimony that found no tradition of displaying the commandments in American classrooms and no founding-era consensus supporting such government-sponsored religious expression.

The court also dismissed the state’s claim that the displays would be “passive,” noting that public school students “cannot look away” and have “no meaningful opportunity” to avoid the religious messaging in a captive classroom setting. The ruling emphasized that the law burdens the religious and parental rights of non-Christian families by mandating state-sponsored scripture in contradiction with their beliefs.

“Plaintiffs are not just bystanders,” the judge wrote. “They claim they will be subjected to a state-mandated, religiously preferential version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom for the remainder of their education.”

The preliminary injunction applies to the four named school districts—Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, and Siloam Springs—and prohibits enforcement of the law while the case proceeds. The Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, which intervened to defend the statute, is expected to appeal.

A full trial on the constitutionality of Act 573 could occur in early 2026 if the injunction is upheld on appeal. Meanwhile, similar laws recently passed in Louisiana and Texas remain in legal limbo, with challenges ongoing in federal courts.

Tags: Arkansas Act 573, Ten Commandments in schools, Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause, federal injunction

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