Three Houston moms are suing to cease displaying the Ten Commandments in Texas public faculty lecture rooms, arguing that it violates the state’s spiritual freedom regulation and a voter-approved parental rights modification.
Their lawsuit is the newest problem to Senate Invoice 10 — this time underneath Texas regulation. Different makes an attempt to ban the show of the Ten Commandments in public colleges underneath federal regulation — primarily the First Modification’s assure of separation of church and state — have been unsuccessful up to now.
The moms’ swimsuit, filed in Harris County, calls for that the shows be taken down and that the court docket act earlier than mid-August, when the college 12 months begins.
Emily Roth, one of many plaintiffs, stated in a Friday morning press launch that the Ten Commandments poster purposefully ignores spiritual variations within the classroom and can make college students really feel like they don’t belong.
“It teaches college students, and their lecturers, that exclusion is appropriate, perhaps even most well-liked. That’s not a lesson I would like my kids studying from the state of Texas,” she stated.
The dad and mom are suing underneath the Texas Non secular Freedom Restoration Act, which the Legislature handed in 1999 and declares that “a authorities company might not considerably burden an individual’s free train of faith.”
They’re additionally suing underneath the just lately authorised Texas Proposition 15 — also referred to as the “Parental Rights Modification” — which ensures dad and mom have the best “to train care, custody, and management of the guardian’s youngster, together with the best to make choices regarding the youngster’s upbringing.”
Final 12 months’s Senate Invoice 10 requires Texas lecture rooms to show donated posters of the King James Model of the Ten Commandments. The posters have to be seen within the classroom and can’t be smaller than 16 by 20 inches.
Nonetheless, varied faiths — resembling Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant traditions — quantity and phrase the commandments in another way, the press launch famous.
Sixteen households sued 11 faculty districts to dam the brand new regulation in July 2025. They argued that it violates the separation of church and state and pressures college students to embrace spiritual rules and values they might not align with.
In August 2025, U.S. District Decide Fred Biery blocked the regulation within the focused districts.
A fifth Circuit Courtroom ruling this spring then permitted the enforcement of Senate Invoice 10, stating that the Texas regulation didn’t violate the Structure. The court docket additionally cleared the best way for the same regulation in Louisiana.
Texas Legal professional Basic Ken Paxton has lengthy argued that the Ten Commandments are an essential a part of the heritage and historical past of the USA. Attorneys together with his workplace have argued that the posters — as a result of they’re displayed moderately than taught — don’t qualify as coercive, as college students are allowed to disregard them.
This lawsuit comes lower than two months after the Texas Board of Training authorised a brand new Bible-infused curriculum for public colleges.
The three moms suing in Houston are Roth, Audrey Rosa Nath and Sanjam Kaur Sohal.
Roth is elevating her kids with out faith; Nath is elevating her kids throughout quite a lot of spiritual traditions present in her household, together with Jainism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Quakerism; Sohal is Sikh, in line with the press launch.
Megan Hassan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, stated that regardless of the ladies’s completely different spiritual beliefs all of them need the identical factor: “for his or her kids to attend faculty with out being compelled to show a message that conflicts with their religion.”
“They didn’t desire a authorized battle with the state of Texas,” she stated. “They wished a poster faraway from a classroom wall. That ought to by no means have required a lawsuit.”
This story is revealed by way of a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and Faith Information Service.
This text first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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Associated Tales
Whereas two different lawsuits have dominated the Texas regulation unconstitutional, that is the primary class motion swimsuit that may apply to colleges statewide.
‘The First Modification ensures households and religion communities — not the federal government — the best to instill spiritual beliefs in our youngsters,’ the ACLU stated.
A federal choose has barred 11 faculty districts from implementing the state regulation, calling it unconstitutional. Paxton has ordered all different districts to show the Ten Commandments.
