The Ten Commandments will not be displayed in Texas public schools after a federal judge blocked the state’s new Ten Commandments law Aug. 20.
U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio issued a preliminary injunction on Senate Bill 10 to remain in effect as litigation in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District continues.
The law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June requires 16-by-20-inch framed copies or posters of the Ten Commandments in every public elementary and secondary school classroom. It was to go into effect Sept. 1.
“SB-10 crosses the line from exposure to coercion,” Biery said in the 55-page order that outlines the history of church-state separation in the United States.
“SB-10 crosses the line from exposure to coercion.”
Plaintiffs claim the statute interferes with parents’ right to educate their children in matters of faith and the law violates the First Amendment ban on government endorsement of religion.
Biery determined the complaint has “a substantial likelihood of success on the merits” as it moves forward in federal court.
Fred Biery
“The displays are likely to send an exclusionary and spiritually burdensome message to the child-plaintiffs — who do not subscribe to the approved version of the Ten Commandments — that they ‘are outsiders who do not belong in their own school community,’” Biery said in citing a 2000 Supreme Court ruling against prayer at school events.
The law also would burden the free exercise rights of religious and nonreligious students and interfere with parents’ rights to guide the religious education of their children, he said. “Moreover, the 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 backgrounds and beliefs while at school.”
The government also failed to prove how burdening the free exercise rights of students and families furthers any compelling interest of the state, he said. “There are ways in which students could be taught any relevant history of the Ten Commandments without the state selecting an official version of Scripture, approving it in state law and then displaying it in every classroom on a permanent basis.”
Biery’s order cites an April newspaper column by Cameron Vickrey defending church-state separation from a perspective of faith. The San Antonio resident is director of communications and development with Fellowship Southwest.
Cameron Vickrey
“Historically, Baptists were early advocates for church-state separation and religious freedom because of their experience of persecution,” she wrote. “The American principle protected dissenters like themselves and had the additional benefits of protecting all religious minorities, including the non-religious.”
Biery said he relied on the Supreme Court’s 1980 Stone v. Graham decision banning Decalogue displays in public classrooms as well as a June federal appeals court ruling declaring Louisiana’s Ten Commandments “facially unconstitutional.” Louisiana officials said they plan to appeal the decision.
“As a rabbi and public school parent, I welcome this ruling,” said plaintiff Mara Nathan, a rabbi from San Antonio. “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”
Plaintiffs in the Texas case are represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas and the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The law firm Simpson Thacher and Bartlett is providing pro bono counsel.
Mara Nathan
“Today’s decision ensures that our clients’ schools will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed and can learn without worrying that they do not live up to the state’s preferred religious beliefs,” said Heather Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Freedom of Religion and Belief program.
“Today’s decision will ensure that Texas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” said Americans United President Rachel Laser. “It sends a third strong and resounding message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.”
“It is gratifying to see the federal court honoring our First Amendment, with the wisdom to understand how wrong it would be to impose Bible edicts on public students as young as kindergartners,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation. “Religious instruction must be left to parents, not the state, which has no business telling anyone how many gods to have, which gods to have or whether to have any gods at all.”
In addition to Texas and Louisiana, Arkansas passed a Ten Commandments bill this year. All three have been blocked by federal courts.
In Oklahoma, a group of teachers and parents sued to stop the state’s plan to introduce a Bible-infused curriculum in public schools and a directive from state school Superintendent Ryan Walters mandating a Bible in every classroom.
Related articles:
Ruling coming soon on Texas Ten Commandments law
I’m a Christian teacher who opposes posting the Ten Commandments | Opinion by Rebecca Johnson
Why I’m a pastor who opposes a Ten Commandments bill | Opinion by Preston Clegg
Court strikes down Louisiana Ten Commandments law