San Antonio judge temporarily blocks Texas’ Ten Commandments rule in 11 school districts

A federal judge in San Antonio has temporarily blocked nearly a dozen school districts from implementing a Texas law requiring all public campuses to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms so that they’re constantly visible to all students.

Sixteen parents of various religious backgrounds filed a federal lawsuit to halt 11 school districts from implementing the rule, which was scheduled to go into effect Sept. 1. The parents — represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other religious freedom groups — maintain the state’s requirement violates both the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause.

In a Wednesday ruling, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery agreed, stating that the Republican-backed law favors Christianity over other faiths and shows no neutrality with respect to religion. Further, the display of the Ten Commandments would make non-Christian students feel like outsiders in their own school communities and create barriers for parents of other faiths as they try to raise children in their traditions, he added.

“By design and on its face, the statute mandates the display of expressly religious scripture in every public school classroom,” Biery wrote. “The Act also requires that a Judeo-Christian version of that scripture be used, that is exclusionary to all other faiths.”

In June, another group of Dallas-area parents filed a similar suit. Earlier that same month, a federal appeals court blocked a Louisiana mandate requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools.

“As a rabbi and public school parent, I welcome this ruling,” Mara Nathan, a plaintiff in the San Antonio suit and senior rabbi at Temple Beth-El, said in a statement. “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”

The state law, known as Senate Bill 10, is among the latest attempts by the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature to inject Christianity into public schools in violation of long-established court precedent separating church and state. During the most recent session, the Lege also passed a law allowing a school district to give students time to pray.

“Today’s ruling is a major win that protects the constitutional right to religious freedom for Texas families of all backgrounds,” Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, added. “The court affirmed what we have long said: Public schools are for educating, not evangelizing.”

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This article appears in Aug 7-20, 2025.