A federal judge has blocked Arkansas from implementing a new law requiring Ten Commandments displays in public-school classrooms.
In issuing the Aug. 4 preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks described Arkansas Act 573 as “plainly unconstitutional” under the First Amendment’s Establishment and Free Exercise clauses.
A group of seven nonreligious and multi-faith families filed Stinson v. Fayetteville School District No. 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas June 11. They argued the law violates their religious freedom and interferes with their responsibility for the religious education of their children.
Judge Timothy Brooks
Brooks’ ruling is directed only at the Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale and Siloam Springs school districts because the plaintiffs reside in those jurisdictions. But one of the legal groups that sued the state said all 237 of the state’s districts have “an independent obligation” to honor the injunction.
“In light of the district court’s ruling in Stinson that Act 573 is ‘plainly unconstitutional,’ any district that implements Act 573 will be violating the First Amendment and could be inviting additional litigation,” Americans United for Church and State said.
But Brooks pressed the state to explain why it would pass such an unconstitutional law in the first place.
“Most likely because the state is part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms,” he said in the ruling.
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed the bill into law in April, and it was set to go into effect Aug. 5. The act followed similar legislation passed — and swiftly challenged — in Louisiana and Texas.
“These states view the past decade of rulings by the Supreme Court on religious displays in public spaces as a signal that the court would be open to revisiting its precedent on religious displays in the public-school context.”
“These states view the past decade of rulings by the Supreme Court on religious displays in public spaces as a signal that the court would be open to revisiting its precedent on religious displays in the public-school context,” Brooks said.
According to the injunction, those past rulings include Town of Greece v. Galloway, a 2014 decision allowing sectarian prayers to begin government meetings, and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, a 2022 decision enabling public employees to hold private prayer sessions on government properties.
But Brooks said he was partly guided by Stone v. Graham, a 1980 Supreme Court ruling striking down a Kentucky law requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms.
“Students receiving instruction in algebra, physics, engineering, accounting, computer science, woodworking, fashion design and German will do so in classrooms that prominently display (the King James version of) the Ten Commandments,” Brooks said. “Every day from kindergarten to 12th grade, children will be confronted with these commandments — or face civil penalties for missing school.”
Plaintiff Samantha Stinson said the law is a “direct infringement” on her religious liberty rights and those of other parents and students who aren’t Christians or who don’t ascribe to the specifically Protestant language required in the displays.
“The version of the Ten Commandments mandated by Act 573 conflicts with our family’s Jewish tenets and practice, and our belief that our children should receive their religious instruction at home and within our faith community, not from government officials,” she said.
Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arkansas and the Freedom from Religion Foundation represent plaintiffs in the case.
“Today’s decision will ensure that Arkansas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion.”
John Williams
“Today’s decision will ensure that Arkansas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” Americans United President Rachel Laser said. “It sends a strong message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.”
The injunction supports parents who want their children to receive a public education untainted by government-mandated religious teaching, said John Williams, director of the ACLU of Arkansas.
“The court saw through this attempt to impose religious doctrine in public schools and upheld every student’s right to learn free from government-imposed faith,” he said.
“We are delighted that reason and our secular Constitution have prevailed, and that children will be spared this unconstitutional proselytizing,” added Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Annie Laurie Gaylor
The legal groups representing the Arkansas families also are behind Roake v. Brumley, the 2024 lawsuit challenging the Louisiana Ten Commandments law declared unconstitutional by a federal judge and currently under appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
And the Texas Ten Commandments bill signed by Gov. Greg Abbot in June already faces two federal lawsuits, one by a group of 16 multifaith and nonreligious families and the other by a coalition of Christian and Muslim parents.
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