The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has officially upheld S.B. 10, the state law that requires all Texas public school classrooms to display a poster with a copy of the Ten Commandments. The law had been challenged by multiple districts in court and enjoined.
At the center of the lawsuits was whether or not this law was a violation of the First Amendment, and the Fifth Circuit has decided it was not. Jonathan Covey with Texas Values explained the decision, saying: “The Court said this isn’t about establishing a religion; it’s about recognizing a historical text that has influenced our legal tradition.”
He went on to call on districts like Houston ISD, Austin ISD, and others who pushed back against the law to come into compliance quickly. “When a law is upheld and the injunction is lifted, school districts have a duty to comply. Not delay, not reinterpret it, not ignore,” he said.
As far as timelines are concerned, there’s no real way to know when every classroom in every school in every district in Texas will have the posters displayed. The law doesn’t require the schools to purchase the posters, meaning it may be up to parents who want the posters to be displayed in their children’s classroom to donate them themselves.