A group of 18 multi-faith and nonreligious Texas families filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday in San Antonio federal court to block public school districts statewide from displaying the Ten Commandments.
Since the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 10, which requires the religious text be posted in every classroom, two federal judges have ruled the law unconstitutional and blocked the displays in districts named as defendants.
Even so, other Texas districts not directly involved in the previous suits continue to display the Ten Commandments, according to groups representing the plaintiffs in Tuesday’s filing. Those organizations — which include the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation — say a class action is needed to ensure students in all 1,000 districts statewide are free from having Christian doctrine stuffed down their throats.
“The courts are clear that forcing displays of the Ten Commandments on Texas students is unconstitutional,” ACLU of Texas attorney Chloe Kempf said in an emailed statement. “Yet Texas school districts won’t stop. Enough is enough. With this class action lawsuit, Texans are coming together to say: Students and families — not the government — should decide how or whether they practice their faith.”
The new suit, Ashby v. Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, is the first class action filed to shut down SB 10’s mandate, according to ACLU officials.
The plaintiff families, which represent a range of faiths and nonreligious backgrounds, attend 16 school districts, none of which is named in the two prior cases.
The districts listed as defendants in the class action include Argyle, Birdville, Carroll, Clear Creek, Deer Park, Fort Sam Houston, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Katy, Liberty Hill, Magnolia, Medina Valley, Pearland, Prosper, Richardson, Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City and Wylie. Several of those districts are in the San Antonio metro.
“As a Jewish, Christian, and Chinese American family, we teach our children to draw strength from many traditions — not to see one as supreme,” plaintiff Mari Gottlieb, whose children attend schools in Carroll ISD, said in a statement. “Forcing the Ten Commandments on my kids is indoctrination, undermines my right to guide their beliefs, and perpetuates the feelings of exclusion that our ancestors knew all too well.”
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