Two federal courts ruled last month that public schools in Arkansas and Texas may not implement new laws that require all public schools to permanently display a government-chosen, Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks issued a preliminary injunction Aug. 4 holding that Arkansas Act 573, which was due to take effect on Aug. 5, “is plainly unconstitutional” under the religious freedom provisions of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The legal challenge, Stinson v. Fayetteville School District No. 1, was brought by Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the national ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel. The groups represent parents, students and clergy who charge that the law violated their rights.
Ruling that the law would lead to unconstitutional religious coercion of the child plaintiffs and interfere with their parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious education, Brooks explained, “Students receiving instruction in algebra, physics, engineering, accounting, computer science, woodworking, fashion design and German will do so in classrooms that prominently display (the King James version of) the Ten Commandments. Every day from kindergarten to twelfth grade, children will be confronted with these Commandments — or face civil penalties for missing school.”
The decision also sounded an alarm against growing state efforts to “experiment” with government establishments of religion. As Brooks observed, “Why would Arkansas pass an obviously unconstitutional law? Most likely because the State is part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms.”
Americans United applauded the ruling.
“Today’s decision will ensure that Arkansas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United. “It sends a strong message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.”
The day after ruling came down, Americans United and its allies sent a letter to superintendents in all Arkansas school districts, warning them not to implement Act 573.
About two weeks later, a federal court in Texas invalidated that state’s law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
“[T]he displays are likely to pressure the child-Plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the State’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious background and beliefs while at school,” wrote U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in his Aug. 20 ruling.
The legal challenge, Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, was brought on behalf of a group of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious families, including clergy, with children in public schools by Americans United, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel.
“As a rabbi and public school parent, I welcome this ruling,” said plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan. “Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”