Federal judge blocks Texas Ten Commandments law in public schools

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a Texas bill requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, the latest in a string of setbacks for red states seeking to introduce the religious text into schools.

Judge Fred Biery wrote in an order granting a preliminary injunction that the Republican-led legislature could not demonstrate a tradition of public schools posting the Ten Commandments, which he said was needed for the bill to withstand court precedents.

“This Court finds there is insufficient evidence of a broad tradition in place at the time of the Founding, and within the history of public education, to justify S.B. 10,” Biery wrote.

Biery, a Clinton appointee, also said the legislation was not neutral enough on religion to be constitutional. The bill “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions and officially favors Christian denominations over others,” the judge wrote.

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Families of numerous religious denominations, as well as non-religious plaintiffs, brought the lawsuit, arguing Texas’ bill imposed a religious preference on their children in violation of the First Amendment.

Their lawsuit followed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit deciding in June that a similar law in Louisiana was unconstitutional. Biery partially relied on that ruling to justify his own. A judge in Arkansas overturned yet another bill about the Ten Commandments in public schools this month.

The Supreme Court rejected the idea of public schools posting religious texts in classrooms in Stone v. Graham in 1980. That case centered on a bill passed by the Kentucky government that required hanging posters of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, which the high court found violated the First Amendment because it lacked a secular purpose.

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Biery observed that while the language in Texas’ legislation excluded any religious purposes, lawmakers were vocal about its intent. The judge gave several quotes from state lawmakers, including the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate.

“We want every kid, [kindergarten] through twelve, every day, in every classroom they sit in to look on the wall and read … those words … because we want them to understand how important that those statements of God, those rules of God are that they see them in their classroom every single day of their public education,” State Sen. Phil King, a Republican, said.

That and numerous other statements cited by the judge demonstrated that lawmakers had a predominantly religious objective when they passed the bill, Biery said.

The bill’s authors wrote in a statement accompanying the legislation that they wanted the religious directives displayed on the school walls because they were a significant part of history.

“Now that the legal landscape has changed, it is time for Texas to pass S.B. 10 and restore the history and tradition of the Ten Commandments in our state and our nation,” the legislators said.