Dive Brief:
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Several Texas school districts were sued in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday over their decisions to move forward with public school displays of the Ten Commandments in compliance with a recent state law.
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The lawsuit comes in light of an August court order preventing Texas’ Ten Commandments law from being implemented in at least 11 districts. That order found the state statute violated the separation of church and state under the First Amendment.
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The ACLU lawsuit follows through on warnings from civil rights organizations that districts in states where the Ten Commandment statutes are on pause could be sued if they choose to display the religious directives, even though court orders may apply only to some — and not all — districts in the state.
Dive Insight:
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court Western District of Texas' San Antonio Division, says students across the state "will be forcibly subjected to scriptural dictates, day in and day out" if the law is not stopped.
Families from different faiths who brought the lawsuit say the Texas law seeks to "impose specific religious beliefs on public-school children" from the Protestant faith.
The lawsuit seeks to temporarily — and eventually permanently — pause the law in at least 14 districts.
“A federal court has already made clear that school districts violate the First Amendment when they post the Ten Commandments in classrooms under S.B. 10,” said Heather Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, in a Sept. 22 statement. “School districts must respect students’ and parents’ constitutional rights, and we will continue to hold school districts accountable when they flout this obligation.”
Lawmakers proposing Ten Commandment laws tout them as fundamental to American history.
"Today, our students cry out for the moral clarity, for the statement of right and wrong that they represent," said Republican Texas state Sen. Phil King, who introduced Texas' S.B. 10, in a Feb. 10 statement. "If our students don’t know the Ten Commandments, they will never understand the foundation for much of American history and law."
S.B. 10, which the ACLU is now challenging, was meant to "help ensure our students understand and appreciate the role of the Ten Commandments in our heritage, our system of law, and their impact throughout Western Civilization," said King.
Ten Commandment laws are also on pause in a handful of Arkansas districts and in Louisiana. All districts in those states also received letters from the same civil rights groups leading Monday's lawsuit, warning that they may be sued if they follow their state's Ten Commandment laws.
In Louisiana, however, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals paused the law statewide, saying the religious displays "will cause an ‘irreparable’ deprivation of [the Plaintiffs’] First Amendment rights.”
That case and others are still ongoing.
