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Texas families file class action lawsuit over law mandating Ten Commandments in schools

By
Steven Rosenbaum
Digital Producer, CBS Texas
Steven Rosenbaum is a digital producer for CBS Texas. A versatile journalist, Steven writes, edits and produces content for the CBS Texas digital platforms.
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Steven Rosenbaum

/ CBS Texas

The Texas law mandating the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom is facing another legal challenge, and the new lawsuit could eliminate the posters statewide.

The American Civil Liberties Union and religious freedom organizations filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Antonio on Tuesday on behalf of 18 families with children in public school across the state. The suit seeks class action status on behalf of the estimated 5.5 million public school students in the state.

Sixteen school districts are named as defendants, including seven from North Texas, but the lawsuit asks the judge to block all Texas school districts from enforcing the law known as SB 10.

The lawsuit claims that the law violates the First Amendment. 

The families "don't want their children to be forced to observe and venerate a state-mandated version of the Ten Commandments each school day, in violation of their religious freedom," according to a news release from the ACLU.

The lawsuit is similar to two others already pending from the civil rights groups. Last month, a judge in one of the cases, filed in September, issued a preliminary injunction ordering the districts who were named as defendants to remove the Ten Commandments posters already displayed. Fort Worth, McKinney, Frisco, Northwest, Rockwall and Mansfield ISDs are among the districts impacted by that ruling.

In August, a judge in a separate lawsuit blocked Plano ISD from displaying the posters. 

Nationwide legal battle over Ten Commandments in schools

While the Texas lawsuits play out, the legal battle over a similar law in Louisiana is set to go before a federal appeals court next month.

A federal district court judge ruled that the Louisiana law was unconstitutional in December of 2024, citing a 1980 Supreme Court decision over a similar law in Kentucky. The state appealed the ruling, but a three-judge panel of appeals court judges agreed. 

On further appeal, all 17 judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to hear the case. Arguments are scheduled for next month. The Fifth Circuit also includes Texas, so the outcome will have an impact on how the challenges to SB 10 play out.

The case could ultimately end up back in front of the Supreme Court. 

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