As part of its ongoing fight against Christian Nationalism, Americans United filed five new lawsuits in five weeks to kick off the summer.
“Just as America had to fight for its independence, Americans United spends every day fighting for our democracy,” said AU President and CEO Rachel Laser in a Fourth of July message to supporters. “We won’t back down. Americans United was made for moments like this, and we’ll continue to be the shield that protects religious freedom for all.”
Ten Commandments laws in Arkansas and Texas
On June 20, a federal appeals court ruled in a lawsuit brought by AU and allies that Louisiana’s law requiring every public school classroom to display the Ten Commandments was “plainly unconstitutional.”
Nonetheless, the very next day, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced he’d signed Senate Bill 10, a law requiring similar Ten Commandments displays in every Texas public school classroom.
AU and allies vowed to challenge the law in court, and followed through on that promise less than two weeks later. AU, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with support from law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, filed a federal lawsuit on July 2 on behalf of 16 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families. The plaintiffs — Christians, Jews, Hindus, Unitarian Universalists and nonreligious parents and children — asked the court for a preliminary injunction to prevent their school districts from implementing the law while the litigation is ongoing.
“As a rabbi and public school parent, I am deeply concerned that S.B. 10 will impose another faith’s scripture on students for nearly every hour of the school day,” said lead plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan of San Antonio, whose child also is a plaintiff. “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.”
Nathan is one of five parent plaintiffs who also are faith leaders. Another is Pastor Griff Martin of Austin, who is a Baptist minister and a plaintiff alongside his wife, Abigail, and their two children.
“Posting the Ten Commandments in public schools is un-American and un-Baptist,” said Pastor Martin. “S.B. 10 undermines the separation of church and state as a bedrock principle of my family’s Baptist heritage. Baptists have long held that the government has no role in religion — so that our faith may remain free and authentic. My children’s faith should be shaped by family and our religious community, not by a Christian nationalist movement that confuses God with power.”
Just a few weeks before the Texas lawsuit was filed, AU, the ACLU, ACLU of Arkansas, FFRF and Simpson Thacher filed a federal lawsuit in Arkansas challenging that state’s Ten Commandments display law, Act 573. In addition to requiring the displays in all public school classrooms, Act 573 also requires the displays in public libraries, public colleges and universities, and all public buildings.
Speaking at a National Day of Prayer event in May, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders celebrated signing Act 573 into law: “[T]oday I ask that we come together, and we send a clear message: ‘Here we are from every corner of our state, every background, every denomination united in one God to say, in one prayer, in one voice, that we will always stand and we will always follow the one true Creator.’”
All three states — Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas — require the same Protestant version of the Ten Commandments to be displayed, which means state officials not only are requiring unconstitutional religious displays, but they’re also weighing in on a theological debate and picking a state-favored religion.
“As American Jews, my husband and I deeply value the ability to raise our children in our faith, without interference from the government,” said Samantha Stinson of Fayetteville, Ark. She’s the lead plaintiff in the Arkansas case; her husband, Jonathan Stinson, and two children also are plaintiffs. “By imposing a Christian-centric translation of the Ten Commandments on our children for nearly every hour of every day of their public school education, this law will infringe on our rights as parents and create an unwelcoming and religiously coercive school environment for our children.”
The Arkansas plaintiffs include seven multifaith and nonreligious families.
“Our Constitution’s guarantee of church-state separation means that families — not politicians — get to decide if, when and how public school children engage with religion,” said AU’s Laser. “This law is part of the nationwide Christian Nationalist scheme to win favor for one set of religious views over all others and nonreligion — in a country that promises religious freedom. Not on our watch.”
Oklahoma’s Christianity-infused social studies standards
The day before the Texas Ten Commandments lawsuit was filed, AU filed a suit in neighboring Oklahoma to challenge new K-12 social studies standards that are infused with dozens of references to the Bible and Christianity.
The standards also inaccurately present Bible stories as literal, historical facts; inaccurately proclaim the Bible and Christianity’s influence on the founding of America and the country’s laws; favor Christianity over other faiths and beliefs; and require other inaccurate teachings, including disproven contentions about the legitimacy of the 2020 election and conveying as unquestioned truth the controversial theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in a Chinese laboratory.
AU has called out Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters for abusing the power of his office to impose his extreme religious and political beliefs on the state’s public school children. The lawsuit explains that not only do the new standards violate the religious freedom protections guaranteed in the Oklahoma Constitution, but the process used to the approve the standards also violated the Oklahoma Open Meeting Act and other procedural requirements, and they run afoul of a statutory requirement that Oklahoma’s academic standards be accurate and age-appropriate.
In the lawsuit, AU and Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice represent 33 Oklahomans, including parents and children, public school teachers and faith leaders. The lead plaintiff is the Rev. Dr. Mitch Randall of Norman, an ordained Baptist minister and CEO of Good Faith Media.
“As a Christian, I object to Oklahoma’s new social studies standards that require teachers to deceive students by presenting inaccurate information as fact,” Randall said. “To reduce the Bible to a history book — rather than treating it as a theological text — does a disservice to public school students, their families, their teachers and those who consider the Bible to be a book of faith.
Randall added, “As a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, I am especially bothered by my tax dollars supporting state-mandated religious instruction. It’s a painful reminder of the forced religious proselytization my family members experienced in Native American boarding schools in Oklahoma.”
Randall and several others also are plaintiffs in two other legal challenges AU is leading in Oklahoma: a lawsuit challenging Walters’ mandate that all public schools teach directly from the Bible, and the lawsuit that challenged Oklahoma’s attempt to create the nation’s first religious public school. As this issue of Church & State went to press, AU and allies were declaring victory in the latter case and were moving to the dismiss it in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 4-4 deadlock that blocked the creation of St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School.
Investigating Trump’s ‘Anti-Christian Bias’ Task Force
Soon after President Donald Trump issued his February executive order demanding the creation of an “Anti-Christian Bias” Task Force, AU began investigating how federal agencies would implement this mandate that was supposedly aimed at ending “the anti-Christian weaponization of government.”
AU especially focused on the Department of Veterans Affairs when, in April, the VA was among the first federal agencies to announce the formation of its own version of the task force and asked employees to report allegations of “anti-Christian discrimination.”
AU filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the VA, seeking records on any reports of anti-Christian or anti-religious bias dating back to Jan. 1, 2017. AU also requested records related to the formation of the VA’s task force and the agency’s implementation of Trump’s executive order.
The VA failed to respond to AU’s request within 30 days as required by federal law. So, on June 12, AU filed a federal lawsuit in Washington, D.C., asserting the VA is unlawfully withholding public records.
“The Trump administration created the Anti-Christian Bias Task Force based on the false claim that there’s rampant Christian persecution within the federal government. We’ve called their bluff and demanded that they prove it — show us the evidence of widespread anti-Christian discrimination,” Laser said. “So far the Trump administration is ignoring our request in violation of federal transparency law — what are they hiding?
“The Department of Veterans Affairs serves veterans of all religions and none,” Laser added. “Rather than protect everyone’s religious beliefs, this task force will misuse department resources and the principle of religious freedom to justify bigotry, discrimination, and the subversion of our civil rights laws. This task force is not a response to Christian persecution; it’s an attempt to privilege Christian Nationalism.”
The same day the lawsuit was filed, AU also sent letters to the State Department and the VA urging them to “rescind any directives instructing employees to report on anti-Christian bias and to shut down any politically motivated investigations stemming from such reports.” The letters explained the problems with attempting to enforce Trump’s executive order, including that it’s a transparent attempt to favor “Christian employees and silence those who disagree.”
Religious statues on Massachusetts public safety building
AU’s recent spree of lawsuits began on May 27 in Quincy, Mass., a city of 100,000 people about 10 miles south of Boston. Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s plan to display two 10-foot-tall bronze statues of Catholic saints on the city’s new public safety building prompted AU, the ACLU, the ACLU of Massachusetts & FFRF to file a lawsuit to block the displays.
Not only did Koch plan to display statues of Saints Michael and Florian on public property, but the mayor intended for taxpayers to foot the $850,000 cost of the statues. Local reporting on the statues earlier this year revealed Koch’s statue plan was never presented or discussed at city council meetings, and the public was never given an opportunity to weigh in.
“Mayor Koch is abusing the power of his government office to impose religious beliefs on all Quincy residents,” said Laser. “The core principles of church-state separation and religious freedom promised in the Massachusetts Constitution require government buildings and other public spaces to be inclusive of people of all religions and none. By installing religious statues in front of the government building dedicated to public safety, Koch and the City are violating that promise and sending a message to all who rely on city police and fire services that one faith is favored over all others.”
AU and allies separately wrote to Koch and the city council earlier this year, explaining the statues would violate residents’ religious freedom. Quincy residents also spoke out; the Quincy Interfaith Network in April urged city officials to “reconsider this decision and instead seek secular design elements that reflect the shared values of our entire community — justice and inclusion for all.”
When it was clear Quincy officials were moving forward with plans to display the statues despite the public outcry, AU and allies filed a lawsuit on behalf of a multifaith group of 15 Quincy residents.
“This isn’t about opposing anyone’s faith — it’s about keeping government neutral so that everyone, regardless of what they believe, feels equally welcome and protected,” said plaintiff Gilly Rosenthol, who is Jewish. “No one should have to walk past giant religious monuments just to access a public safety building. That sends the wrong message about who our city serves — and who it doesn’t.”
It’s been a busy few months for the lawyers at Americans United, and as the start of both a new school year and a new Supreme Court term loom, the threat from Christian Nationalists also is expected to ramp up. But AU is ready.
“We won’t back down,” Laser assured supporters. “Americans United was made for moments like this, and we’ll continue to be the shield that protects religious freedom for all.”