A federal judge in Texas temporarily ordered the removal of the Ten Commandments posters from schools in several districts in the state, following a lawsuit by a group of parents who argued that the poster infringes on their religious liberty. The preliminary injunction, issued on Tuesday, requires the schools to remove the posters by Dec. 1 and bars them from displaying new ones.
U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia wrote that “displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in S.B. 10 violates the establishment clause.”
He added that it was “impractical, if not impossible, to prevent Plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining Defendants from enforcing S.B. 10 across their districts.”
The preliminary injunction that’s part of the Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District lawsuit will affect 14 school districts, including the Fort Worth, Arlington, McKinney, Frisco, Northwest, Rockwall and Mansfield districts.
The organizations opposing the posters are asking all Texas school districts not to implement the law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union press release. “All school districts, even those that are not parties in either ongoing lawsuit, have an independent obligation to respect students’ and families’ rights under the U.S. Constitution, which supersedes state law.”
Attorney General Ken Paxton also sued three school districts — Round Rock ISD, Leander ISD and Galveston ISD earlier, — for not displaying the Ten Commandments posters, even though they had received the donations.
“These rogue ISD officials and board members blatantly disregarded the will of Texas voters who expect the legal and moral heritage of our state to be displayed in accordance with the law,” said Paxton. “Round Rock ISD and Leander ISD chose to defy a clear statutory mandate, and this lawsuit makes clear that no district may ignore Texas law without consequence.”
He also previously said that “America is a Christian nation” and “it is imperative that we display the very values and timeless truths that have historically guided the success of our country.”
In August, a different judge temporarily blocked the law in 11 school districts as part of the Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights ISD lawsuit.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 10 in May 2025 after it passed the Texas Senate and House. The bill requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom with the law taking effect on Sept. 1, 2025.
Similar laws also passed in Louisiana and Arkansas, where they have also been challenged and are currently tied up in legal battles. The schools do not have to spend funds from their budgets on the posters but are expected to display the posters they have received through donations.
But Tuesday’s preliminary injunction is a response to a lawsuit by a group of 15 families, of different religious and nonreligious backgrounds, who sued the state in the case.
Represented by the ACLU, the parents argued that the law violates the First Amendment by endorsing religion and coercing children to encounter a religious text in class, even if students belong to other faiths or no faith at all. By mandating the Ten Commandments posters in the classroom, the law “impermissibly prefers a set of distinct religious beliefs and dictates and will impose those preferred religious beliefs and dictates on Texas’s public-school children, including the minor-child Plaintiffs,” lawyers wrote on behalf of parents.
Supporters of the law see the presence of the Ten Commandments in the classroom as a way of cultivating ethical and moral values in the students. “The Ten Commandments are part of our Texas and American story,” said Sen. Phil King, R-Texas, who introduced the legislation along with state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Texas. “They are ingrained into who we are as a people and as a nation. Today, our students cry out for the moral clarity, for the statement of right and wrong that they represent. If our students don’t know the Ten Commandments, they will never understand the foundation for much of American history and law.”
After Tuesday’s blocking of the order, plaintiffs celebrated the victory.
“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,” said plaintiff Lenee Bien-Willner in the ACLU’s statement. “The government has no business interfering with parental decisions about matters of faith.”