Dive Brief:
- Six Arkansas districts will not have to comply with a state law requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments following a district court judge's ruling that "nothing could possibly justify" the requirement.
- In a strongly worded ruling on Monday, the judge said "the only reason to display a sacred, religious text in every classroom is to proselytize to children. The State has said the quiet part out loud.”
- The decision follows two district court rulings last year in Texas and Louisiana that temporarily blocked the Ten Commandments from being displayed in public school classrooms. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, reversed Louisiana’s injunction in February.
Dive Insight:
Arkansas’ Act 573, passed in 2025, requires public schools to “prominently display” the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in “a conspicuous place” in all classrooms and libraries.
However, 13 parents sued Arkansas' Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Conway, and Lakeside School Districts before the law took effect. The parents argued that the requirements violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause and burden their religious practice under the Free Exercise Clause.
Prior to the Arkansas law's enactment, Louisiana in 2024 became the first state to approve a law mandating that public schools display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. Texas passed a similar law in 2025.
While district courts in all three states have ruled against the laws,the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February reversed the Louisiana pause in a rehearing of the case. The appellate court said it was too early to decide whether the displays violated the First Amendment.
The 5th Circuit also heard the Texas lawsuit alongside Louisiana's in January, but has not yet announced decision in that case.
In the Louisiana case, the 5th Circuit said that because the lower court paused the law before it was implemented, the context in which school districts would display the Ten Commandments is unknown.
The 5th Circuit panel said Ten Commandments displays could, for example, have accompanying materials that teachers could reference during instruction. The statute allows additional content such as the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance to be displayed alongside the Ten Commandments, the judges said.
However, Monday's decision penned by Judge Timothy Brooks, for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas' Fayetteville Division, veered from that stance.
“Nothing could possibly justify hanging the Ten Commandments — with or without historical context — in a calculus, chemistry, French, or woodworking class, to name a few," Brooks said. "And the words ‘curriculum,’ ‘school board,’ ‘teacher,’ or ‘educate’ don’t appear anywhere in Act 573. Accordingly, there is no need to strain our minds to imagine a constitutional display mandated by Act 573. One doesn’t exist.”
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she intends to appeal the ruling, in a statement reported by local media.
“In Arkansas, we do in fact believe that murder is wrong and stealing is bad,” Sanders said in the reported statement. “It is entirely appropriate to display the Ten Commandments — the basis of all Western law and morality — as a reminder to students, state employees, and every Arkansan who enters a government building, and I look forward to appealing this suit and defending our state’s values.”
Arkansas is under the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
