EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/a><\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n