Texas’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, insists that the majority of public schools must comply effective September 1 with a new law requiring that they display the Ten Commandments, even as a pending legal challenge and a court injunction play out in 11 of the state’s 1,237 school districts. 

The law, S.B. 10, signed by Governor Greg Abbott in June, does not require school districts to purchase the Ten Commandments displays, but schools must display them if they are donated.

“From the beginning, the Ten Commandments have been irrevocably intertwined with America’s legal, moral, and historical heritage,” Mr. Paxton said in a statement on Monday. 

“Schools not enjoined by ongoing litigation must abide by S.B. 10 and display the Ten Commandments. The woke radicals seeking to erase our nation’s history will be defeated. I will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country,” he added.

Mr. Paxton said that every school district except for Alamo Heights, North East, Austin, Cypress Fairbanks, Lackland, Lake Travis, Fort Bend, Houston, Dripping Springs, Plano, and Northside “must abide” by the law. 

Texas is implementing the law despite a decision by a three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit finding a similar law in Louisiana unconstitutional. Last week, a federal judge, Fred Biery, blocked the law on behalf of plaintiffs, saying it “crosses the line from exposure to coercion” and likely violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution. The state is appealing Judge Biery’s ruling. 

Supporters of S.B. 10 say that Judge Biery’s ruling applied only to the 11 school districts and that the rest of the school districts are required to follow the law. 

School districts had sought guidance on whether they should follow the law even if they were not involved in the lawsuit. In an August 22 letter to public school superintendents, the ACLU warned public schools “not to implement” the law and warned that those that put up displays should “immediately remove” them.

“Even though your district is not a party to the ongoing lawsuit, all school districts have an independent obligation to respect students’ and families’ constitutional rights,” the letter reads. “Because the U.S. Constitution supersedes state law, public school officials may not comply with S.B. 10.”

“The Constitution, not the Ten Commandments, built this country,” the Freedom From Religion Foundation added. “Forcing students to observe one religion’s rules is a blatant violation of the First Amendment regardless of what Ken Paxton claims.  Public schools are for education, not religious indoctrination.”

Opponents of the law point to the Supreme Court’s 1980 decision in Stone v. Graham, which found that a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution because the commandments have “no secular legislative purpose.” 

However, conservatives are hopeful that the Supreme Court will rule in their favor as its conservative majority has overturned other landmark decisions in recent years, such as Roe v. Wade. 

One of the sponsors of the legislation that was signed into law, a state senator, Phil King, told a local outlet, Chron, that he has the “highest level of confidence that this injunction will be overturned on appeal.”

Senator John Cornyn, who is facing a primary challenge from Mr. Paxton, shared the attorney general’s letter on X and wrote, “Might want to brush up on the Ten Commandments, Ken,” a slight against Mr. Paxton, whose wife filed divorce papers in July citing “biblical grounds.”