When a federal judge provisionally rules that a state’s mandate for public schools to display the Ten Commandments is unconstitutional, does that ruling apply only to the school districts involved in the litigation or to all districts in the state?
This is the question now playing out in Texas and Arkansas, where parents and students have sued multiple school districts to stop implementation of new Ten Commandments legislation.
The latest salvo came Thursday, Aug. 28, when a federal judge in Arkansas expanded his earlier injunction against the commandments displays to include another district where concerned parents have joined the litigation.
Earlier, Judge Timothy Brooks had ruled in favor of parents with children in public schools in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and Siloam Springs — requiring those districts not to display the Decalogue as required by a new state law. The ruling was based on the judge’s certainty that the Arkansas law will be found unconstitutional when considered at trial.
But state officials demanded other districts not named in the suit continue to comply with the displays despite the court ruling. That prompted parents from Conway School District — located northwest of Little Rock — to ask to join the litigation. In less than 24 hours after joining the suit, Brooks ruled the injunction applies there as well.
In an earlier order, Brooks wrote: “The court ruled that Act 573, if put into effect, was likely to violate the First Amendment rights of all Arkansas public-school parents and their children — not just those attending public school in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, and Siloam Springs. … The court assumed that the state would advise the other 233 school districts of the court’s ruling and caution them to refrain from displaying the Ten Commandments posters they received until a dispositive ruling was entered or these matters were resolved. Clearly, that did not happen.”
With the implication that the judge intended to block the displays in all the state’s schools, he reiterated a specific demand of Conway schools: “All posters displaying the Ten Commandments in compliance with Act 573 must be REMOVED from all classrooms and libraries by no later than 5:00 p.m., tomorrow, August 29, 2025.”
“The court assumed that the state would advise the other 233 school districts of the court’s ruling and caution them to refrain from displaying the Ten Commandments posters.”
Rachel Laser, head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the judge’s intent should be clear to all Arkansas schools.
“All Arkansas public school districts should heed the court’s clear warning: Displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms is ‘obviously unconstitutional,’” he said. “Families in Conway School District, throughout Arkansas and across the country get to decide how and when their children engage with religion — not politicians or public-school officials.”
The Arkansas debate mirrors what’s happened this week in Texas, where Attorney General Ken Paxton ordered school districts not named in a recent court ruling to comply with a state law requiring Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms beginning Sept. 1.
Paxton’s directive came less than a week after a federal judge in San Antonio blocked the statute from taking effect in 11 school districts named in ongoing litigation filed by 16 multifaith and nonreligious families with children in public schools.
Again, attorneys for the plaintiffs warned all other school systems they should not follow Paxton’s counsel and should not implement the new law as litigation proceeds.
“Even though your district is not a party to the ongoing lawsuit, all school districts have an independent obligation to respect students’ and families’ constitutional rights. Because the U.S. Constitution supersedes state law, public-school officials may not comply with SB-10,” the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Freedom from Religion Foundation say in an Aug. 22 letter to superintendents.
Earlier this summer, a federal appeals court blocked Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law after it was labeled “facially unconstitutional” by a lower court judge.
The stated intent of advocates of the new laws in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana is to tee up a case for the U.S. Supreme Court to potentially reconsider its earlier ruling that mandatory Ten Commandments violate the First Amendment’s protections on religious liberty.
Related articles:
Texas schools given conflicting advice on Ten Commandments
Federal judge strikes down 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