A new law requiring the display of an explicitly Protestant translation of the Ten Commandments in all Texas public-school classrooms is set to take effect Sept. 1, just weeks into a new school year for Houston ISD and other districts across the region and state. But a court hearing on Friday could lead to the law being blocked, pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
A coalition of four civil liberties organizations is seeking an injunction against the law, which passed the state Legislature this spring as Senate Bill 10, at a federal court hearing in San Antonio. Chloe Kempf, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas, said they're hoping to block the law before it can take effect next month.
"Because we know that even days or weeks of being exposed to this state-sponsored religious indoctrination can cause real harm to our clients and students like them," Kempf said.
The coalition is suing on behalf of 16 Texas families of different religious and non-religious backgrounds. They're arguing that the law violates First Amendment protections against government-established religion.
"And they've all come together in this case to say that they want to be the ultimate instructor of their child's moral and religious upbringing and that the government should have no part in it," Kempf said.
Republican advocates of the law have argued the Ten Commandments are a legal document critical to the historical foundation of the United States.
“Nothing is more deep-rooted in the fabric of our American tradition of education than the Ten Commandments,” said state Rep. Candy Noble (R-Lucas) during the House debate over SB 10 in May. “The very way we treat others in our society come from the principles found in the Ten Commandments. In these days of courtroom mayhem, it’s time to return to the truths, to the fabric of our educational system. Respect authority. Respect others. Don’t steal. Tell the truth. Don’t kill. Keep your word.”
Republican supporters of the bill further contended that a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, Kennedy v. Bremerton Independent School District, struck down a long-standing legal precedent that prevented displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
“In 1980, an errant Supreme Court, in a case that came not out of Texas but out of Kentucky, said that we could no longer do that,” said state Sen. Phil King (R-Weatherford), the bill's author, during the March Senate floor debate, noting that in 2022, “a new Supreme Court corrected that error, and we are now able to do this again.”
Nevertheless, federal courts in Louisiana and Arkansas have ruled — since SB 10's passage in Texas this spring — that such laws remain unconstitutional.
"The Supreme Court has been consistent for over 40 years that religious indoctrination of school children is a very real constitutional concern," Kempf said, "and the Supreme Court even affirmed that in the Kennedy case, where they said that there are specific coercive pressures that go on in the classroom that can lead to constitutional violations."
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