EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction requiring certain public school districts in Texas to remove Ten Commandments displays by Dec. 1 and prohibiting them from posting new displays, according to the ACLU.
The order, issued by U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia, is in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of 15 multifaith and nonreligious families, the ACLU stated.
Judge Garcia stated that “displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in S.B. 10 violates the Establishment Clause.”
The case, Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District, was filed after the defendant school districts installed or were about to install Ten Commandments posters, despite a previous ruling by Judge Fred Biery in a separate lawsuit declaring the Texas law requiring the displays “plainly unconstitutional.”
The plaintiffs, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other organizations, argue that the displays infringe on students’ constitutional rights. Lenee Bien-Willner, a plaintiff, expressed relief at the ruling, saying, “The government has no business interfering with parental decisions about matters of faith.”
Chloe Kempf, staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas, emphasized that “our schools are for education, not evangelization,” and the ruling protects students from “state-mandated religious coercion.” Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, called the decision “a victory for religious liberty.”
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