ACLU, religious freedom groups sue to block Texas’ Ten Commandments requirement in 14 more school districts

The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and a coalition of religious freedom organizations are suing 14 more Texas school districts to block them from implementing a new state law requiring public school classrooms to display donated posters of the Ten Commandments.

A Texas federal judge in August temporarily blocked the Ten Commandments law from taking full effect, following an initial lawsuit brought forth by 16 families of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds, represented by the civil rights groups.

The ruling only applied to the nearly a dozen Texas school districts named in the groups’ first lawsuit, though attorneys expressed hope in court that other districts would not implement a law that the judge found unconstitutional. But on Monday, those lawyers told the same court in a legal filing that many districts have started implementing the new law or signaled an intent to do so.

In his August decision, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery concluded that the law favors Christianity over other faiths, is not neutral with respect to religion and is likely to interfere with families’ “exercise of their sincere religious or nonreligious beliefs in substantial ways.”

“There are ways in which students could be taught any relevant history of the Ten Commandments without the state selecting an official version of scripture, approving it in state law, and then displaying it in every classroom on a permanent basis,” Biery wrote in his opinion, adding that the law “crosses the line from exposure to coercion.”

Texas has appealed the ruling, sending the case to the same court where a three-judge panel recently blocked Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law from taking effect. The state also requested that all active judges on the court hear the case, as opposed to a three-judge panel. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a new release that he wants the court to take up Texas’ and Louisiana’s appeals together.

“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of American law, and that fact simply cannot be erased by radical, anti-American groups trying to ignore our moral heritage,” Paxton said. “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.”

Oral arguments in the Texas case, Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, concluded in August, several weeks after the 16…