Judge: Texas schools must remove displays of Ten Commandments
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Nov. 18 requiring certain public school districts in Texas to remove Ten Commandments displays by Dec. 1 and prohibiting them from posting new displays.
The order, a win for religious freedom and state/church separation, is in response to a new lawsuit filed Sept. 22 by a group of 15 multifaith and nonreligious families with children attending schools in the districts. In his order, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia wrote that “displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in SB 10 violates the Establishment Clause.” He added, “It is impractical, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining defendants from enforcing SB 10 across their districts.”
The order came in the case Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District, which was filed after the defendant school districts installed or were about to install Ten Commandments posters. The districts were proceeding with the displays despite Judge Fred Biery’s Aug. 20 order in a separate lawsuit, Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights ISD, in which he called the Texas law requiring the displays “plainly unconstitutional.” After that order was issued, the organizations representing families in both lawsuits sent letters to all Texas school districts urging them not to implement the law.
While the preliminary injunction directly applies to the defendant school districts named in the Cribbs Ringer lawsuit, the organizations behind the lawsuit are urging all Texas school districts not to implement SB 10. All school districts, even those that are not parties in either ongoing lawsuit, have an independent obligation to respect students’ and families’ rights under the U.S. Constitution, which supersedes state law.
The plaintiffs in both cases are represented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel.
“We’re extremely happy to have secured this victory for the plaintiff families we represent,” says Sam Grover, senior counsel for the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “But Texas never should have put parents and students in this position in the first place. The law is quite clear that pushing religion on students in public school is unconstitutional.”
