Empowered by the rulings of two federal judges that a state law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments is unconstitutional, a coalition of Texas families filed a third lawsuit this week asking that the religious text be removed immediately.
A civil action suit was filed in the U.S. District Court on Tuesday, naming Clear Creek, Deer Park, Katy, Magnolia and Pearland ISDs, among others. The action signals that the advocacy group will continue pursuing litigation until all of Texas’ 1,000-plus public school districts comply. Ten Commandments displays have already been barred in Conroe, Cypress-Fairbanks, Fort Bend and Houston ISDs.
The action is the third lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 10 but it is the first civil suit. Plaintiffs in all three cases are “multifaith and nonreligious families” represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
Plaintiff Kasey Malone, a Katy ISD parent, said in a statement Tuesday that she sends her child to public school because she does not want the government to push religious beliefs and doctrine on her child.
“Yet the government is doing just that by elevating Christianity over my child’s nonreligious beliefs,” she said.
The first lawsuit challenging Senate Bill 10, Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, was filed in July. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction in August preventing the 11 defendant school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments.
Despite the court’s ruling that the displays would be “plainly unconstitutional,” some Texas school districts that weren’t defendants in the Rabbi Nathan case began to display or announced their intention to begin displaying Ten Commandments posters, officials representing the plaintiffs said in a press release.
In response, the organizations filed a second lawsuit, Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District, on behalf of a new group of 15 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families with kids in 14 different Texas public school districts.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia issued a preliminary injunction in November requiring those districts to remove the displays by Dec. 1, and prohibiting them from posting new displays, according to the press release.
“Throughout this ongoing litigation, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued statements instructing school districts to comply with Senate Bill 10 unless a court has ordered them not to do so, and Paxton has sued three school districts to enforce the law,” the press release states.
Paxton, who is in a contentious race for U.S. Senate facing incumbent John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt in the Republican primary, said when he sued Galveston ISD last month that refusing to post the Ten Commandments was a violation of state law.
“America is a Christian nation, and it is imperative that we display the very values and timeless truths that have historically guided the success of our country,” Paxton said in a November 7 statement. “By refusing to follow the law, Galveston ISD chose to both blatantly ignore the Legislature and also ignore the legal and moral heritage of our nation.”
The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 10 in May, saying at the time that legal challenges were expected. Under the law, which became effective on September 1, the scripture must be displayed on a donated 16-by-20 poster in every classroom. Schools are not required to purchase the displays but can do so if they choose. They must, however, post any privately donated posters, according to the law.
Some districts, like Galveston, have attempted to opt out by a vote of the school board. Hays Consolidated ISD near Austin accepted donated Ten Commandments posters from the nonprofit My Faith Votes/Million Voices and opted to also display the Bill of Rights, which states that, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”
“We know that posting the Ten Commandments will spark many campus and community discussions,” said Hays ISD Superintendent Eric Wright in a statement.”We think it’s entirely appropriate to also display the other document that will be frequently cited in those conversations and in the legal process. The district won’t defy state law, but we can approach this new mandate as a learning opportunity,”
The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit will hear the Rabbi Nathan case, along with a similar legal challenge in Louisiana, on January 20. The court injunctions blocking the schools from displaying the Ten Commandments remain in place while the appeal is pending, officials with Americans United for Separation of Church and State said Tuesday.
Following the Rabbi Nathan ruling, attorneys in the case sent a letter to all Texas school districts suggesting they not implement SB 10 because it would violate the First Amendment.
“Even though your district is not a party to the ongoing lawsuit, all school districts have an independent obligation to respect students’ and families’ constitutional rights. Because the U.S. Constitution supersedes state law, public-school officials may not comply with SB 10,” the letter states.
Supporters of SB 10 say the Ten Commandments and Christian teachings are vital to understanding U.S. history. Plaintiffs have argued that SB 10 is a clear violation of students’ and families’ religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, said in a statement Tuesday that “it’s imperative to protect a captive audience of public school students, including impressionable children as young as kindergartners, from this zealous crusade to turn schools into places of religious indoctrination.
“The diversity reflected by the number of religious and nonreligious plaintiffs reveals what a distressing violation of conscience this unconstitutional law is,” Gaylor said.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
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