Supreme Court Asked To Consider Constitutionality of Ten Commandment Displays in Classrooms

A group of more than two dozen families is asking the Supreme Court to weigh in on the constitutionality of a Texas law that requires a 16 inches wide by 20 inches tall poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments to be prominently on display in every public classroom in the state.The petitioners are more than two dozen families of diverse faiths and beliefs, including Baha’ism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Unitarian Universalism, and nonreligious traditions, whose children attend Texas public schools. The suit challenges the constitutionality of the 2025 law, Senate Bill 10, under both the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment.The law requires that the version of the commandments that needs to be displayed must come from the Protestant King James Bible. The families object to the law because they say the displays will pressure children to conform to the state’s favored religious beliefs and interfere with parents’ right to guide their children’s religious instruction.“As a rabbi and parent, forcing a Christian version of the Ten Commandments on children in every classroom is particularly upsetting,” one of the parents, Rabbi Joshua Fixler, said in a release. “I am not only worried about my own kids, but I’m deeply concerned about all the children in my congregation. These displays put children in the position of having to defend themselves and their families’ religious beliefs against a government mandate that makes them feel different and separate from their classmates.”In April the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the law in a nine-eight decision and stated that students are not “taught to adopt” the commandments and teachers are not “commanded to proselytize students” who disagree with them.Attorney General Ken Paxton, currently running for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas, called the Fifth Circuit decision a major victory for “moral values” in the state. “The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day,” Mr. Paxton said in a release.The American Civil Liberties Union and other civil rights organizations are representing the families. In a filing asking the Nine to take up the case, lawyers for the organization said the Fifth Circuit “flouted this Court’s binding precedents and gutted the religious-freedom rights of public-school children and parents.”The suit says families, not politicians, have the right to decide what role religion plays in their lives.The high court, which has a depiction of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments inside its own courtroom, decided in 1980 that a law requiring a displayed copy of the Ten Commandments is a violation of the First Amendment and favored one religion over another. “Fifty years ago, the ACLU won a Supreme Court victory against a nearly identical Kentucky law — and we aim to do it again,” the national legal director of the ACLU, Cecillia Wang, said. “In our country, no legislature can force its preferred scripture on public school students and families.”The court’s make-up has changed significantly since the 1980 decision. In a 2022 decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority that the rationale used to decide that case was “long ago abandoned.” Conservatives in Republican-led states have supported new Ten Commandments requirements with the hope that the justices will overturn the ban.Louisiana, in 2024, became the first state in decades to pass a law requiring the display of the commandments. Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas followed with similar laws. In February the Fifth Circuit lifted a lower court ruling that blocked the implementation of the Louisiana law.The Supreme Court is on summer recess and the justices are scheduled to return to the bench on October 5.

Supreme Court Asked To Consider Constitutionality of Ten Commandment Displays in Classrooms

Supreme Court Asked To Consider Constitutionality of Ten Commandment Displays in Classrooms

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