Cranford, NJ – Yesterday, in a split 9-8 decision, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that Texas may require its public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The controversial religious display mandate, Senate Bill 10 (SB 10), was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbot last June and took effect at the start of the current school year. It is one of several recent efforts to impose the personal religious and political ideologies of powerful Texas politicians onto students of all backgrounds and beliefs. After its passage, the measure was almost immediately challenged by Texas families, faith leaders, and civil rights organizations. A lower federal court found that the mandate violated the First Amendment and blocked several school districts from posting the religious displays “in a conspicuous place,” as required by the statute. Tuesday’s decision reversed that ruling. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Stephen A. Higginson wrote that a state “legislating that specific, politically chosen scripture be installed in every public-school classroom” contradicts the founders’ clear intent “to prevent large religious sects from using political power to impose their religion on others.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has long advocated to Christianize public education, recently suggested, “There is no legal reason to stop Texas from honoring a core ethical foundation of our law, especially not a bogus claim about the ‘separation of church and state,’ which is a phrase found nowhere in the Constitution.” Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, issued a forceful response following yesterday’s ruling: “The politicians claiming this is about history and not religion are lying. Paxton has said that he wants ‘the Word of [his] God’ in publicly funded Texas classrooms. Abbott has said it’s about the nation’s moral fabric. These are politicians who falsely claim our country — a country famously founded on religious freedom for all – was ‘founded on the rock of Biblical Truth.’ But ask any actual historian, and they’ll tell you: That’s not accurate history, it’s a Christian Nationalist myth. And we’ll keep fighting for the atheist kid, the Muslim kid, the Jewish kid, and all students — and their families — who do not share the religious beliefs of state officials because they still live in a free country, albeit within a state that is increasingly less free and less American under the leadership of religious supremacists.” The court’s conservative majority held that the large displays of a sectarian text in public school classrooms do not violate the Establishment Clause because they do not amount to “coercive indoctrination,” even as public school students are legally considered a captive audience. As one attorney representing the families argued, “[Students] can’t just look away, Your Honor. Not for 13 years. Not in every class. Not every minute of every day.” Geoffrey T. Blackwell, legal director for American Atheists, added: “That this outcome was foreseeable by those who closely monitor church-state issues does not mitigate its harm. It drastically reinterprets the First Amendment, rewrites our nation’s pluralistic legacy, unconstitutionally favors one religion, and unconscionably exposes young people to religious indoctrination. In response to a wave […]

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