Legal Battles Stall Texas Push for Ten Commandments in Classrooms

(AUSTIN, Texas)  — Just days after a San Antonio federal district court issued a preliminary injunction blocking a state law requiring all Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, the Austin Independent School District (AISD) announced it would not comply. 

Austin’s stance defied a directive from Attorney General Ken Paxton stating that any districts not covered by the injunction must still follow the law. The late-August ruling by US District Judge Fred Biery in Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, marked a significant pushback against what critics see as the creeping  influence of government in public education. 

The law known as Senate Bill 10, which passed the Republican-controlled state House in May and took effect on Sept 1, requires all Texas public elementary and secondary schools to display a copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. 

Supporters hailed its passage as restoring Christian tradition to classrooms, while critics warned of a broader Republican push to inject religion into public education. 

“We are so pleased that Austin ISD is doing the responsible thing by refraining from unconstitutionally posting biblical edicts in every classroom,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the nonprofit advocacy Freedom From Religion Foundation told The Click. “The State of Texas has no right to tell a captive audience of schoolchildren which gods to have, how many gods to have, or whether to have any gods at all — showing how the First Commandment violates the First Amendment.”

The Texas law is part of a wave of similar legislation across the country, with at least a dozen other states considering similar proposals. In Louisiana and Arkansas, nearly identical laws have already triggered similar legal challenges and temporary injunctions. Civil rights groups expect litigation could eventually reach the Supreme Court, which last weighed in on the issue in 1980 when it struck down a Kentucky law that required posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms–arguing it was a violation of the First Amendment (Stone v Graham). 

In recent weeks, educators across several districts have voiced resistance to the bill, even seeking creative ways to reinterpret its implementation. 

Teachers at a school in Dallas pinned a Ten Commandment poster among tenet scrolls from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam. The bill faced further challenges on September 22, when 15 families representing various public school districts filed a lawsuit in San Antonio federal court seeking to block its rollout, citing last month’s ruling in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District.