A federal judge in San Antonio has temporarily blocked a Texas law that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom beginning Sept. 1.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued the ruling Wednesday, arguing the law likely crosses the line into religious coercion and violates the First Amendment’s separation of church and state.
The legislation, Senate Bill 10, passed the Texas Legislature on May 28 and was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 21. It mandated a framed, clearly visible copy of the Ten Commandments — at least 16 by 20 inches — in every public school classroom across the state.
Left-wing backlash was swift. Beginning in July, a coalition of families, progressive religious leaders, and activist groups — including the ACLU of Texas and the Freedom From Religion Foundation — sued to block the law. Their argument: the state has no business promoting religious doctrine in public schools.
Judge Biery heard arguments earlier this month and promised to rule before the law’s scheduled start date.
On Wednesday, he issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement in the school districts named in the suit.
In his opinion, Biery acknowledged the Ten Commandments wouldn’t be “affirmatively taught,” but warned their permanent display would prompt student questions that teachers might feel obligated to answer. That, he wrote, could amount to government-endorsed religion in the classroom.
As CBS News reports:
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.
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.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton plans to appeal. Paxton, who is running in a highly competitive Republican primary to unseat Sen. John Cornyn, argues the Ten Commandments reflect America’s legal and moral foundation — and belong in the spaces where young citizens are formed.
The case is likely bound for the Fifth Circuit and could ultimately reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Similar laws in Louisiana and Arkansas have already been struck down under comparable constitutional challenges.
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