In a victory for religious freedom and church-state separation, a federal district court has issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the school district defendants from implementing a Texas law that requires all public elementary and secondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
In his decision in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District today, U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery held that Texas Senate Bill 10, which is due to take effect on Sept. 1, likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment.
Ruling that the law would likely lead to unconstitutional religious coercion of the child plaintiffs and interfere with their parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious education, Judge Biery explained:
“The displays are likely to pressure the child-plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious background and beliefs while at school.”
Represented by the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel, the plaintiffs in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District are a group of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious families, including clergy, with children in public schools.
“As a rabbi and public school parent, I welcome this ruling,” says plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan. “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”
“It is gratifying to see the federal court honoring our First Amendment, with the wisdom to understand how wrong it would be to impose bible edicts on public students as young as kindergartners,” says Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Religious instruction must be left to parents, not the state, which has no business telling anyone how many gods to have, which gods to have or whether to have any gods at all.”
“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” says Heather L. Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “Today’s decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed and can learn without worrying that they do not live up to the state’s preferred religious beliefs.”
“Today’s ruling is a major win that protects the constitutional right to religious freedom for Texas families of all backgrounds,” says Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “The court affirmed what we have long said: Public schools are for educating, not evangelizing.”
“Today’s decision will ensure that Texas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” says Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “It sends a third strong and resounding message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.”
“We are heartened by today’s well-reasoned decision that underscores a foundational principle of our nation: The government cannot impose religious doctrine,” says Jon Youngwood, co-chair of Simpson Thacher’s Litigation Department. “This ruling is critical to protecting the First Amendment rights of students and families to make their own determinations as to whether and how they engage with religion.”
The preliminary injunction, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, prohibits the school-district defendants from “displaying the Ten Commandments pursuant to SB 10.”
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