Texas families ask Supreme Court to review Ten Commandments school law.
More than two dozen families represented by the ACLU and other advocacy groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court Monday to review a law that requires Texas public schools to display the Ten Commandments. The move comes after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April that Senate Bill 10, passed in 2025, can go into effect.
The court was split, but nine judges did find that the law doesn’t establish an official state religion, nor does it tell students what to believe. “It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason,” the ruling said. In the Supreme Court brief, the attorneys for the families argue that even that is a violation of the First Amendment. The families have an array of beliefs—everything from Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Baha’i, Unitarian Universalist, and atheist. “If the permanent, unavoidable imposition of biblical scripture in public-school classrooms does not interfere with, or threaten to undermine, parents’ ability to direct their children’s religious education and to instill particular religious beliefs and practices, it is difficult to imagine what would,” they say. Among the parents represented in the petition are Nichole Manning and Mara Richards Bim, and several are ministers, including Richards Bim. Districts named in the petition include Plano ISD, McKinney ISD, Frisco ISD, Azle ISD, Rockwall ISD, Lovejoy ISD, and Mansfield ISD.
The law does provide schools an “out” from displaying the commandments, provided none have been donated: “A public elementary or secondary school in which each classroom does not include a poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments as required by Subsection (a) may, but is not required to, purchase posters or copies that meet the requirements of Subsection (b) using district funds.” (Italics ours.)
Read more below.