A group of 16 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families filed suit in federal court today to block a new state law requiring all public elementary and secondary schools to display a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
The plaintiffs in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District are represented by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, 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. In their complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the plaintiffs, who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, Hindu or nonreligious, assert that SB 10 violates the First Amendment’s protections for the separation of church and state and the right to free religious exercise.
The plaintiffs also plan to file a motion for a preliminary injunction, asking the court to prevent the defendants from implementing the law pending the resolution of the litigation.
Plaintiff Allison Fitzpatrick (she/her) says: “We are nonreligious and don’t follow the explicitly religious commandments, such as ‘remember the Sabbath.’ Every day that the posters are up in classrooms will signal to my children that they are violating school rules.”
“As a rabbi and public-school parent, I am deeply concerned that SB 10 will impose another faith’s scripture on students for nearly every hour of the school day,” says plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan (she/her). “While our Jewish faith treats the Ten Commandments as sacred, the version mandated under this law does not match the text followed by our family, and the school displays will conflict with the religious beliefs and values we seek to instill in our child.”
“Posting the Ten Commandments in public schools is un-American and un-Baptist,” says plaintiff Pastor Griff Martin (he/him). “SB 10 undermines the separation of church and state as a bedrock principle of my family’s Baptist heritage. Baptists have long held that the government has no role in religion — so that our faith may remain free and authentic. My children’s faith should be shaped by family and our religious community, not by a Christian nationalist movement that confuses God with power.”
“SB 10 imposes a specific, rules-based set of norms that is at odds with my Hindu faith,” says plaintiff Arvind Chandrakantan (he/him). “Displaying the Ten Commandments in my children’s classrooms sends the message that certain aspects of Hinduism — like believing in multiple paths to God (pluralism) or venerating murthis (statues) as the living, breathing, physical representations of God — are wrong. Public schools — and the state of Texas — have no place pushing their preferred religious beliefs on my children, let alone denigrating my faith, which is about as un-American and un-Texan as one can be.”
Enacted last month, SB 10 requires the scriptural postings to be a minimum of 16 by 20 inches in size and hung in a “conspicuous place” in each classroom. The commandments must be printed “in a size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the room.” The law also mandates that a specific version of the commandments, associated with Protestant faiths and selected by lawmakers, be used for every display.
“One need only read the First Commandment (‘Thou shalt have no other gods before me’) to see how this state-imposed injunction is the antithesis of the First Amendment and its protections of religious liberty,” says Annie Laurie Gaylor (she/her), co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “The state of Texas has no right to dictate to children how many gods to worship, which gods to worship or whether to worship any gods at all.”
“SB 10 is catastrophically unconstitutional,” says Heather L. Weaver (she/her), senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “States may not require children to attend school and then abuse their access to those children by imposing scripture on them everywhere they go.”
“In a state as diverse as Texas, families from both religious and nonreligious backgrounds are coming together to challenge this unconstitutional law. Their message is clear: Our public schools are not Sunday schools,” says Adriana Piñon (she/her), legal director of the ACLU of Texas. “Politicians do not get to dictate how or whether students should practice religion. We’re bringing this lawsuit to ensure that all students, regardless of their faith or nonreligious beliefs, feel accepted and free to be themselves in Texas public schools.”
“Our Constitution’s guarantee of church-state separation means that families — not politicians — get to decide when and how public-school children engage with religion,” says Rachel Laser (she/her), president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “This law is part of the nationwide Christian nationalist scheme to win favor for one set of religious views over all others and over nonreligion — in a country that promises religious freedom. Not on our watch. We’re proud to defend the religious freedom of Texas schoolchildren and their families.”
“The right to be free from government establishment of religion enshrined in the First Amendment is a bedrock principle of our republic,” says Jonathan Youngwood (he/him), global co-chair of Simpson Thacher’s Litigation Department. “This law — in requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom throughout a child’s entire public school education — violates both the ban on establishment of religion as well as the protections the First Amendment gives to free exercise of religion.”
The Supreme Court has long prohibited displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools. Forty-five years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the court struck down a similar Kentucky law. More recently, in Roake v. Brumley, a federal district court reached the same conclusion regarding a similar law in Louisiana. That ruling was unanimously affirmed last month by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And just last week, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court held that a public school “burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses a very real threat of undermining the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters of nontheism. With more than 42,000 members, including over 1,800 members in Texas, FFRF advocates for freethinkers’ rights. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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