A growing number of Republican-led states are pushing for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms as part of a broader movement to introduce prayer and Christian teachings into public schools and test the boundaries of the separation of church and state.
In 2024, Louisiana became the first state to pass a law mandating the displays since the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law in 1980 that had a similar directive. Last year, both Arkansas and Texas passed their own mandates, and lawmakers in several other states are currently considering bills that require or endorse the religious posters in schools.
Generally, the laws do not require school districts to spend public funds on Ten Commandments posters. Instead, they direct schools to hang donated posters or to purchase them if using donated funds. Church groups and conservatives have flooded schools in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas with posters.
Proponents of the laws say the Ten Commandments is not just a religious document but also a historical one. Critics, which include civil rights groups and families of varying faiths, contend that the laws interfere with parents’ rights to shape their children’s religious education and infringe on their First Amendment rights.
The measures have spurred lawsuits that could make their way the Supreme Court. So far, federal judges have mostly sided with challengers and blocked the laws from taking effect. But one federal appeals court found last month that it was too early to decide whether the law was constitutional, allowing the Louisiana policy to take effect.
Here is how these laws stand in different states:
Louisiana
On Feb. 20, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lifted a preliminary injunction on Louisiana’s law, clearing the way for the state to require the Ten Commandment displays in all public classrooms.
Under the law, the commandments must be displayed in each classroom of every public elementary, middle and high school, as well as public college and university classrooms. The posters must be no smaller than 11 by 14 inches, and they must include a three-paragraph statement that the Ten Commandments were a “prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”
In the February decision, Judge James C. Ho of the Fifth Circuit wrote in a concurring opinion that the law “is not just constitutional — it affirms our nation’s highest and most noble traditions.”
After the Fifth Circuit ruling, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana sent a letter to superintendents instructing them to hang the posters. The principles of “do not lie, do not steal, do not cheat, honor your father and mother” outlined in the Ten Commandments “have secular and historical significance in American jurisprudence and public education,” Mr. Landry wrote.
Lawyers who represented the families challenging the law said after the decision that they were “exploring all legal pathways” to challenge “this unconstitutional law.” On March 12, they asked the appeals court to pause its decision until the deadline to ask the Supreme Court to review the case passes.
Arkansas
This week, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks issued a permanent injunction on the Ten Commandments law in Arkansas, blocking several school districts from implementing it.
Judge Brooks said the law would lead to unconstitutional religious coercion.
“The only reason to display a sacred, religious text in every classroom is to proselytize to children,” he wrote. “Nothing could possibly justify hanging the Ten Commandments — with or without historical context — in a calculus, chemistry, French or woodworking class, to name a few.”
The ruling applies only to the six school districts named in the lawsuits, though a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represented the plaintiffs, said “it would be unwise for any school district in Arkansas to move forward with posting the Ten Commandments” because the constitutional analysis underlying the decision applies statewide.
Jeff LeMaster, a spokesman for the state attorney general, Tim Griffin, said the office plans to appeal the ruling.
Texas
Two federal judges in Texas have said in separate rulings that the state’s Ten Commandments law most likely violated the First Amendment. Both have blocked its enforcement across 24 districts, including some of the state’s largest in Houston and Fort Worth.
Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, appealed those decisions to the Fifth Circuit, which heard arguments in January. A decision is pending.
In the meantime, some teachers have protested by putting up other spiritually themed displays in their classrooms, and at least one educator resigned over the law. Mr. Paxton promised to sue districts that do not put up the posters.
Other States
Elsewhere, South Carolina, Alabama, West Virginia and Missouri are considering bills that direct schools to hang Ten Commandments posters.
South Carolina’s bill, which passed the House and is now under consideration in the Senate, would require the displays in every public school classroom by Jan. 1, 2027. Missouri’s would require the same, but that bill appears to have stalled.
Alabama’s legislation would require the displays in each history classroom for students in fifth through 12th grade, as well as in a common area in schools for students in that age group. That bill has passed out of a House committee.
In West Virginia, a bill mandates displays of the commandments and “In God We Trust” in every elementary, secondary school and public higher education library and classroom. It also requires the commandments to be displayed in all public buildings in the state.
Similar bills were introduced last year but failed to pass in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Montana, South Dakota, Georgia, North Dakota, Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio and Minnesota.
Indiana and Tennessee are considering laws that allow but do not require Ten Commandments displays. Indiana’s proposal would add the Ten Commandments to a list of “protected writings” that teachers can post and would require school libraries to keep at least one copy of the document. Tennessee’s bill, which passed the House, also enables schools to post the commandments “in a prominent location.”
Pooja Salhotra covers breaking news across the United States.
The post The States Pushing for Ten Commandments Displays in Classrooms appeared first on New York Times.
