A federal appeals court has upheld a controversial Texas law requiring public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, setting the stage for a potential legal battle before the U.S. Supreme Court over religion in public education. The ruling came from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which upheld Texas Senate Bill 10 in the case Rav Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District.
The law mandates that all public school classrooms in Texas display a copy of the Ten Commandments. Supporters of the measure argue that the text has significant historical and educational value beyond religion. First Liberty Institute vice president and senior counsel David Hacker defended the decision, saying the Ten Commandments are a “foundational moral, literary, and historical text” whose influence on Western legal traditions should be recognized as part of a complete education.
Hacker also argued that the court’s decision reflects a historical understanding of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. According to him, historical religious establishments involved coercive practices such as mandatory church attendance, religious taxes, and punishments for noncompliance. He said that simply displaying a religious text on a classroom wall does not amount to government coercion or establishment of religion.
Opponents of the law strongly disagree. Several civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized the ruling as unconstitutional. They argue that requiring religious displays in public school classrooms violates the First Amendment’s protection of the separation of church and state and interferes with parents’ rights to decide how their children are taught about religion.
Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor described the 9-8 ruling as troubling and said the appeals court improperly departed from established Supreme Court precedent. Opponents pointed specifically to the 1980 Supreme Court decision Stone v. Graham, which struck down a similar Kentucky law requiring Ten Commandments displays in classrooms.
Civil liberties groups announced plans to appeal the case to the Supreme Court of the United States, expressing confidence that the Court will ultimately reaffirm previous rulings protecting church-state separation in public schools. The case also comes amid broader debates in Texas over incorporating biblical texts into school curriculum standards and a national discussion about religion’s role in public education under policies supported by the administration of Donald Trump.
