A monument of the Ten Commandments stands beside a parking lot in Cuero, Texas. Credit: Shutterstock / Philip Arno Photography
A San Antonio federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction requiring Comal School District and eight others to remove displays of the Ten Commandments by Dec. 1.
The order issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia is yet another blow to the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature’s recently Senate Bill 10, which mandates that public schools place the religious text in every classroom despite federal courts striking down a nearly identical Louisiana law.
Garcia’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed this fall by 15 multi-faith and nonreligious families with children attending schools in the districts named as defendants. In his ruling, the judge said the legislation violates the Establishment Cause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars the government from establishing an official religion or favoring one over others.
“It is impractical, if not impossible, to prevent Plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining Defendants from enforcing SB 10 across their districts,” Garcia wrote.
The defendants moved ahead with hanging posters showing the Ten Commandments despite an August ruling in a separate federal lawsuit calling the posters’ installation in other districts “plainly unconstitutional.” Families involved both cases sent letters to all Texas school districts urging them not to act on SB 10’s mandate.
“I am relieved that as a result of today’s ruling, my children, who are among a small number of Jewish children at their schools, will no longer be continually subjected to religious displays,” plaintiff Lenee Bien-Willner said in a statement about Garcia’s ruling. “The government has no business interfering with parental decisions about matters of faith.”
The plaintiffs in both cases are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as pro bono counsel.
ACLU officials said the latest ruling indicates all Texas school districts — even those not directly involved in the litigation — should follow the U.S. Constitution, which supersedes state law.
“Today’s ruling is yet another affirmation of what Texans already know: The First Amendment guarantees families and faith communities — not the government — the right to instill religious beliefs in our children,” ACLU staff attorney Chloe Kempf said. “Our schools are for education, not evangelization. This ruling protects thousands of Texas students from ostracization, bullying, and state-mandated religious coercion. Every school district in Texas is now on notice that implementing SB 10 violates their students’ constitutional rights.”
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The suit is the latest challenging Texas’ requirement that public schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery said a Republican-backed law requiring schools to display the Christian text is ‘exclusionary to all other faiths.’