More than two dozen Texas families have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the state can require public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
The filing, coordinated by the ACLU and other civil-rights groups, comes after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year that Texas’ and Louisiana’s laws mandating classroom displays of the Christian religious text don’t run afoul of constitutional guarantees about the separation of church and state.
In a statement, the ACLU said it won a victory against a nearly identical Kentucky law before the Supreme Court 50 years ago, and that it expects to notch another win.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected this kind of government-imposed religion before, and it should do so again,” ACLU of Texas staff attorney Chloe Kempf said in a statement. “Having these posters in Texas classrooms puts students at risk of bullying, stigmatization and religious coercion. Our nation’s bedrock principle of separating church and state means that families and faith communities — not politicians — get to decide what role religion plays in children’s lives.”
The families petitioning the nation’s highest court participated in two separate cases involving the Texas law, both with San Antonio-area ties: Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District and Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District.
The Republican-backed Ten Commandments legislation took effect last September after Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law. Conservative groups and individual donors immediately began donating boxes of Ten Commandments posters to campuses, which are now required to place them in every classroom.
“As a rabbi and parent, forcing a Christian version of the Ten Commandments on children in every classroom is particularly upsetting,” plaintiff Rabbi Joshua Fixler of Houston said in a statement. “I am not only worried about my own kids, but I’m deeply concerned about all the children in my congregation. These displays put children in the position of having to defend themselves and their families’ religious beliefs against a government mandate that makes them feel different and separate from their classmates.”
In a statement, plaintiff Nichole Manning, a Dallas-area atheist, said the Texas law impinges on her desire to raise her kids in a nonreligious manner so they have the freedom to develop their own concepts about spirituality.
“As a parent, I intentionally choose to have my children attend public school because I prefer an educational environment without any religious affiliation,” she said. “In a diverse public school environment, all students should be treated with equal respect, regardless of their religious beliefs, or lack thereof.”
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