A state law requiring donated Ten Commandments posters to be displayed in public school classrooms should be upheld, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, emphasizing that no official state religion has been established and families aren’t being forced to practice Christianity.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, known as one of the most conservative courts in the nation, handed down a similar ruling in a Louisiana case in February.
The Texas law passed during the 2025 legislative session and was immediately challenged by 16 families who alleged that state leaders were promoting their interpretation of Christianity over other faiths. The plaintiffs were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Officials with each of the civil rights groups expressed disappointment in Tuesday’s ruling and said in a joint statement that they plan to ask the Supreme Court to reverse the decision and “uphold the religious freedom rights of children and parents.”
“The court’s ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority,” the statement reads. “The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction. This decision tramples those rights.”
The original lawsuit, Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, named 11 school districts as defendants, including Houston, Fort Bend and Cypress-Fairbanks. Fourteen more districts were added later. An additional class action suit filed late last year named 16 school districts and is still pending in court.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys said after a January hearing that they were encouraged by thoughtful questions from the 5th Circuit’s 17-judge panel and hopeful that the court would rule in their favor.
“Texas and Louisiana have enacted laws that require the children of our clients to be exposed to coercive scripture every single day in every single subject, regardless of whether it could. in any way, remotely tie to historical issues or history of religion or not,” said Jonathan Youngwood, a partner with Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP, after the hearing earlier this year.
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said after the January hearing that the effort to push Ten Commandments laws is backed by a Christian nationalist political agenda rooted in a quest for power and “the lie that America is intended to be a Christian nation.”
Some of the plaintiffs are Christians, which is different from Christian nationalism, but support separation of church and state and the opportunity for families to decide when and how children engage with religion, Laser said at the time.
The court’s published opinion says the law “does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams.”
“It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason,” the ruling states.
Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is facing U.S. Senator John Cornyn in a contentious primary runoff next month for Cornyn’s Senate seat, said the ruling was a major victory for Texas and its moral values.
“My office was proud to defend [Senate Bill 10] and successfully ensure that the Ten Commandments will be displayed in classrooms across Texas,” Paxton said in a press release. “The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day.”
Schools only have to display the Ten Commandments if 16-by-20 posters are donated, so no taxpayer money is spent on them. Some districts have balked at the law by posting other religious readings next to the posters, and some educators have quit their jobs, saying they don’t want to have to answer questions about murder and adultery in their classrooms.
The 5th Circuit ruling gives states the authority to enforce the law, meaning that if a district has the posters and isn’t displaying them, the state can withhold funding or take legal action.
The U.S. Supreme Court found public school displays of the Ten Commandments unconstitutional in 1980. Civil rights attorneys have argued that only the Supreme Court can overturn its previous rulings, and it’s likely that’s where this case is headed.
