{"id":260754,"date":"2026-04-22T06:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260754\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T06:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T06:13:08","slug":"texas-can-require-public-schools-to-display-ten-commandments-in-classrooms-u-s-appeals-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/260754\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas can require public schools to display Ten Commandments in classrooms, U.S. appeals court rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2014 Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed<\/a> in public school classrooms, a U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday, in a victory for conservatives who have long sought to incorporate more religion into schools.<\/p>\n

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The ruling sets up a potential clash at the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue in the future. Arkansas and Louisiana have passed similar laws, which have also been challenged in courts.<\/p>\n

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a similar law earlier this moth.<\/p>\n

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said in the decision that Texas\u2019 law did not violate the First Amendment, which protects religious freedom and prevents the government from establishing a religion.<\/p>\n

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a>, a Republican, called the ruling \u201ca major victory for Texas and our moral values.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it\u2019s important that students learn from them every single day,\u201d Paxton said.<\/p>\n

Andrew Mahaleris, spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, also a Republican, said the mandate from the state was a \u201ccommonsense law, consistent with our history and tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organizations representing the families who challenged the law, including the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement that they were \u201cextremely disappointed\u201d by the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThe First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction. This decision tramples those rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling reverses a district court\u2019s judgment that had blocked school districts from displaying the commandments.<\/p>\n

The decision says the law \u201cdoes not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin,\u201d the ruling goes on to say.<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 law took effect on Sept. 1, marking the largest attempt in the nation to hang the Ten Commandments in public schools. About two dozen school districts had been barred from posting them after federal judges issued injunctions in lawsuits against the law. But the commandments went up in many classrooms across the state as the school year started.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s ruling comes after the appeals court heard arguments in January in the Texas case and a similar case in Louisiana. In February, the appeals court lifted a block<\/a> that had been placed on Louisiana\u2019s law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms.<\/p>\n

In a post on social media after the ruling in the Texas case, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said: \u201cOur law clearly was always constitutional, and I am grateful that the Fifth Circuit has now definitively agreed with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arkansas has also enacted a similar law requiring the posting of the commandments, which a federal judge last month blocked<\/a> in a lawsuit there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, a U.S. appeals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-260754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}