By Mike Scarcella<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) – A divided U.S. federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that Texas can require public schools to display the biblical Ten Commandments in every \u200cclassroom, reversing a lower court judge who had blocked the law and marking a setback \u200cfor parents who accused the Republican-led state of trampling their rights under the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n
The New Orleans-based U.S. Court of Appeals \u200bfor the 5th Circuit voted 9-7 to uphold Texas Senate Bill 10, which was enacted last year and requires a poster of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in a visible spot in every public elementary and secondary school classroom in the state.<\/p>\n
The majority\u2019s ruling, written by Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan and \u200cjoined by Chief Judge Jennifer Walker \u2060Elrod and seven other judges, said the law does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on government establishment of religion or its protection of the free exercise \u2060of religion.<\/p>\n
The Texas 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 Duncan wrote. \u201cIt punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, \u200bno \u200bmatter the reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, a lead attorney for \u200bthe challengers of the Texas law said \u200cthey were disappointed by the ruling.<\/p>\n
CHALLENGERS PLAN SUPREME COURT APPEAL<\/p>\n
“The court\u2019s ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority,” Jon Youngwood said. “The 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.”<\/p>\n
Youngwood said the plaintiffs “anticipate asking the Supreme Court to reverse this decision and uphold the religious-freedom \u200crights of children and parents.”<\/p>\n
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in \u200ba statement called the appeals court\u2019s decision \u201ca major victory for \u200bTexas and our moral values.\u201d Paxton said \u200bthe \u201cTen Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it\u2019s important \u200cthat students learn from them every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u200bchallengers, including multifaith and nonreligious \u200bfamilies, contended that they have a right under the U.S. Constitution to decide their children\u2019s religious education.<\/p>\n
In a dissent, 5th Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez said the appeals court was bound \u200bby a 1980 U.S. Supreme \u200cCourt decision that struck down a nearly identical Kentucky law.<\/p>\n
The 5th Circuit\u2019s ruling reversed a \u200bpreliminary injunction that had blocked the Texas law from taking effect.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Mike Scarcella \u200bin Washington; Editing by David Bario and Matthew Lewis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mike Scarcella WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) – A divided U.S. federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[97616,97618,24746,97619,97617,5759,27,4479,29,28,1863,97620],"class_list":{"0":"post-260873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-5th-circuit","9":"tag-commandments","10":"tag-federal-appeals-court","11":"tag-kyle-duncan","12":"tag-secondary-school-classroom","13":"tag-supreme-court","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-attorney-general","16":"tag-texas-headlines","17":"tag-texas-news","18":"tag-texas-senate","19":"tag-the-u-s-constitution"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260873","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=260873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}