The preliminary injunction is in response to a lawsuit by a group of multifaith and nonreligious families with children attending schools in the districts.
HOUSTON — A federal judge has ordered 14 Texas school districts to remove Ten Commandments displays by December 1 and banned them from posting new displays. The public school districts named include Conroe ISD.
The ongoing legal battle over the Ten Commandments began in June when Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10 into law, requiring all public schools to display the Ten Commandments and specifying the minimum size required.
The named school districts have until Dec. 1 to comply.
In August, another judge called the law “plainly unconstitutional” and blocked Texas from enforcing it.
The preliminary injunction issued on Tuesday is in response to a lawsuit filed by multifaith and nonreligious families with children attending schools that continued to display the Ten Commandments, despite the August ruling.
“I am relieved that as a result of today’s ruling, my children, who are among a small number of Jewish children at their schools, will no longer be continually subjected to religious displays,” plaintiff Lenee Bien-Willner said. “The government has no business interfering with parental decisions about matters of faith.”
The plaintiffs in both cases were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
The organizations are urging all Texas school districts to “respect students’ and families’ rights under the U.S. Constitution, which supersedes state law.”
“Our schools are for education, not evangelization. This ruling protects thousands of Texas students from ostracization, bullying, and state-mandated religious coercion,” the ACLU of Texas said in a statement. “Every school district in Texas is now on notice that implementing S.B. 10 violates their students’ constitutional rights.”
Earlier Tuesday, Attorney General Ken Paxton announced lawsuits against two more Texas school districts, which he said are violating the new law. Last week, he sued Galveston ISD for the same reason.
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