Freedom advocates push for Ten Commandments in schools

By Esther Wickham
The Center Square

Legal battles over the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools continue with a new brief filed this week, backed by 46 members of Congress.

First Liberty Institute and Hacker Stephens LLP filed a friend-of-the-court brief this past week at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit. The brief is supported by congressional members such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana.

The brief supports the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools.

“[O]ur Nation’s history and tradition acknowledge Moses as a lawgiver and the Ten Commandments as a historical foundation of our system of laws,” the brief states.

“First Liberty’s recent Supreme Court victories in The American Legion v. American Humanist Association and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District make clear that displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools is constitutional,” said Kelly Shackelford, president, CEO, and chief counsel for First Liberty. “Our religious heritage and the best of the nation’s history and traditions acknowledge the Ten Commandments as an important symbol of law and moral conduct with both religious and secular significance. Government hostility to religion and our religious history is not the law.”

Several states have moved to require the display of the Ten Commandments in classrooms following these Supreme Court rulings.

In 2024, Louisiana enacted House Bill 71, mandating that schools and publicly funded colleges display the Ten Commandments.

Nine families sued the state, arguing that the law encourages state endorsement of religion, which they claimed violated the First Amendment.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10 in June, requiring all public school classrooms to post a copy of the Ten Commandments starting in the 2025-2026 school year. A federal judge in San Antonio blocked the law in certain districts.

A group of 18 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools not already involved in litigation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.

“As a Jewish, Christian and Chinese American family, we teach our children to draw strength from many traditions, not to see one as supreme,” said Mari Gottlieb, one plaintiff whose children attend schools in Carroll, Texas. “Forcing the Ten Commandments on my kids is indoctrination, undermines my right to guide their beliefs, and perpetuates the feelings of exclusion that our ancestors knew all too well.”

Chloe Kempf, attorney with the ACLU of Texas, emphasized the constitutionality of this issue.

“The courts are clear that forcing displays of the Ten Commandments on Texas students is unconstitutional,” Kempf said. “Yet Texas school districts won’t stop. Enough is enough. With this class action lawsuit, Texans are coming together to say: Students and families — not the government — should decide how or whether they practice their faith.”

All of these cases have been consolidated and will be heard by judges at the 5th Circuit later this month.