• A federal judge blocked Texas from requiring Ten Commandments posters in classrooms, halting a controversial law.
• The ruling protects families who argued the mandate violated religious freedom and risked ostracizing children.
• Texas becomes the third state to suffer courtroom defeats on similar laws, setting up a likely Supreme Court fight.

AUSTIN, Texas (TDR) — A district judge ruled Wednesday that Texas cannot mandate posters of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, delivering a significant setback to Republican lawmakers who sought to enshrine biblical text in state education.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sided with a group of parents from 11 districts, writing in his decision that families “just want to be left alone, neither proselytized nor ostracized, including what occurs to their children in government run schools.” The law, set to take effect September 1, would have required posters with the Ten Commandments displayed in “large, readable” print.

Legal Pushback and Constitutional Grounds

Civil liberties groups immediately hailed the ruling as a defense of the constitutional right to religious freedom. Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, praised the decision:

“Today’s ruling is a major win that protects the constitutional right to religious freedom for Texas families of all backgrounds. The court affirmed what we have long said: Public schools are for educating, not evangelizing.”

While this lawsuit applies to only 11 districts, another challenge to the law is already moving through the courts. Legal experts predict these disputes could eventually reach the Supreme Court.

National Trend of Court Defeats

Texas now joins Louisiana and Arkansas, where similar laws mandating classroom displays of the Ten Commandments have been struck down. Critics argue that Republican lawmakers are intentionally provoking judicial battles in hopes that a more conservative Supreme Court will reverse decades of precedent.

Matt Krause, of counsel with the First Liberty Institute, previously said he remains confident that higher courts may ultimately side with states:

“I don’t think anybody is surprised that these policies, these laws in the states that seek to put the Ten Commandments back in schools, have been challenged in court. They’re making their way through the proper channels, and we still are very confident that at the end of the day, when these cases get to the Supreme Court, that they’re going to uphold them based on the new history-and-tradition test.”

Political Fallout in Texas

The Hill has reached out to the office of Gov. Greg Abbott for comment. Abbott and other Texas Republicans have long championed the effort, framing it as a fight to preserve traditional values. Opponents counter that mandating religious texts in schools undermines constitutional protections and divides communities.

With legal battles mounting, the question is not whether these cases will continue, but how far Republican state leaders are willing to push them—and whether the Supreme Court is ready to revisit the line between education and evangelism.

Will the high court ultimately redraw the boundaries of religious freedom in America’s classrooms?

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