A federal judge in Texas has ordered several public school districts to remove classroom displays of the Ten Commandments and barred them from posting new ones, ruling that a new state law requiring the displays likely violates the First Amendment.
In a Nov. 18 preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia found that Senate Bill 10—which mandates large, readable Ten Commandments posters in every public-school classroom—runs afoul of the Establishment Clause’s prohibition on government endorsement of religion.
The ruling requires the defendant districts to take down the displays by Dec. 1 and later certify their compliance.
“Displaying the Ten Commandments on the wall of a public-school classroom as set forth in S.B. 10 violates the Establishment Clause,” Garcia wrote….