Interfaith Parents Sue Texas Schools Over Ten Commandments Law

More interfaith parents and religious leaders are suing a swath of school districts around Texas to try and stop the implementation of the state’s new law that requires posters of the Ten Commandments be hung in public K-12 classrooms.

The suit, filed against several Houston, Austin and San Antonio-area districts, sets up the second challenge against Senate Bill 10, which is slated to go into effect this school year unless a court blocks it.

READ MORE: Texas lawmakers move to post the Ten Commandments in all school classrooms

"Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Texas public-school classroom — rendering them unavoidable — is plainly unconstitutional," the filing states.

The federal court overseeing Texas is currently considering the constitutionality of a similar Ten Commandments law in Louisiana, meaning Texas’ law may be put on pause while that case plays out.

If the Texas law is not paused, traditional school districts and charter schools will be required to hang 16-by-20-inch framed or poster copies of the Ten Commandments in a "conspicuous place" in every classroom. Critics say the law injects religion into the public sphere and would represent the indoctrination of Texas’ 5.5 million students in public schools.

The plaintiffs, a group of parents who say they come from Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and Hindu faiths or are nonreligious, will be represented by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The group includes the leaders of several congregations in the San Antonio and Austin areas.

"While our Jewish faith treats the Ten Commandments as sacred, the version mandated under this law does not match the text followed by our family, and the school displays will conflict with the religious beliefs and values we seek to instill in our child," said Rabbi Mara Nathan, Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth-El in San Antonio and the lawsuit’s first named plaintiff.

The 11 defendants in the latest suit, representing the districts where the plaintiffs reside, are the Alamo Heights, North East, Lackland, and Northside ISDs in the San Antonio area; Houston, Fort Bend and Cy-Fair ISDs in the Houston metro; Austin, Lake Travis and Dripping Springs in Central Texas; and Plano ISD in North Texas. A group of North Texas families filed a similar suit against the Texas Education Agency and three school districts earlier this week.

None of the districts immediately responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Northside ISD district said it was not aware of the complaint having been filed.

The court battle could hinge on the outcome of the Louisiana case. Three judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Texas, blocked Louisiana’s Ten Commandments requirement from going into effect earlier this month, ruling it was unconstitutional. But that ruling has already been put on hold, with possible review by the full court, which could reverse the decision.