WASHINGTON – A coalition of multifaith families asked the Supreme Court on Aug. 17 to rule that Texas can’t require public schools to display the Ten Commandments, likely setting up a major battle over the separation of church and state.
The more than two dozen families – whose beliefs include Judaism, Baha’ism, Christianity, Unitarian Universalism and no faith – are appealing a lower court decision
backing Texas’ law.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-7 in April to uphold Texas Senate Bill 10, which was enacted last year and requires a poster of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in a visible spot in every public elementary and secondary school classroom in the state.
“Texas politicians shouldn’t have a seat at the table in deciding
how our children receive their religious education. That decision belongs to our family,” two of the challengers, Rebekah and Ted Lowe, who are raising their children in the Christian and Jewish traditions, said in a statement. “This law puts one version of religious beliefs above all others in our public schools and sends a message to our children that what we teach them about religion at home is somehow wrong.”
Lawyers for the families argue that the 5th Circuit – the most conservative appeals court in the country – flouted the Supreme Court’s 1980 decision striking down a Kentucky law that’s nearly identical to Texas’ requirement. The court said Kentucky’s law violated the First Amendment’s ban against the government “establishing” a religion.
The appeals court, however, said that the legal reasoning behind the 1980 decision was jettisoned by the Supreme Court in its 2022 opinion backing a high school football coach who offered prayers at the 50-yard line after games despite objections from the school district that students felt compelled to take part.
The appeals court also did not agree with the families that their challenge is supported by the Supreme Court’s 2025 ruling in favor of parents who wanted their elementary school children removed from Maryland schools when books with LGBTQ+ themes were being used.
Texas’ requirement “bears no resemblance to the oppressive curriculum” in that situation, Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote.
But lawyers for the Texas families challenging the law said they have the same First Amendment right to direct their children’s religious upbringing as the parents in Maryland do.
“If the permanent, unavoidable imposition of biblical scripture in public-school classrooms does not interfere with, or threaten to undermine parents’ ability to direct their children’s religious education and to instill particular religious beliefs and practices,” they wrote in their appeal, “it is difficult to imagine what would.”
Unless the Supreme Court gets involved, they argued, government officials will feel free “to flood public-school classrooms with an endless array of religious rules, instructions and mandates.”
The justices have already agreed to hear a case testing a different landmark decision about religious rights and the separation of church and state.
On the first day of its next term, which begins in October, the court will debate whether Catholic preschools in Colorado must admit LGBTQ+ families if they want to participate in the state’s tuition-free program.
The court’s decision could further limit a 1990 ruling much criticized by conservatives because it blocked religious rights challenges to laws that apply to everyone and don't target a particular religious group.
Groups including Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation are representing the Texas families.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued the case before the appeals court, previously called that ruling a “major victory for Texas and our moral values.”
“The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation,” he said in April, “and it’s important that students learn from them every single day."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court asked to block Ten Commandment displays in public schools
