AUSTIN — Civil liberties groups say they will sue Texas over a requirement to post the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms if Gov. Greg Abbott, who vowed to defend the measure, lets the bill become law.
The ACLU of Texas, the national ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Freedom From Religion Foundation said the “blatantly unconstitutional” legislation violates a nearly 50-year-old U.S. Supreme Court precedent that the First Amendment prohibits public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
“We will be working with Texas public school families to prepare a lawsuit to stop this violation of students’ and parents’ First Amendment rights,” the groups said in a joint statement.
Texas’ proposal would require every public school classroom to conspicuously display a 16-by-20-inch poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments with text that anyone in the classroom with average vision could read.
Schools without enough displays would have to accept any donated posters that meet the requirements, though schools could also purchase their own with district funds.
The Texas House added a provision Sunday mandating the state attorney general defend schools in any lawsuits arising from the legislation, meaning taxpayers would fund the state’s defense.
The Texas Senate accepted the House’s version of the bill and voted Wednesday to send the measure to Abbott. He is expected to sign it, though it could also become law if he takes no action.
Abbott, a former Texas Supreme Court justice and state attorney general, responded to the warning late Thursday.
“Bring it,” he wrote in a social media post. “I defended the Ten Commandments Monument on Texas Capitol grounds at SCOTUS. We won & that monument still stands today. We will win this battle also.”
Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford — who authored the Senate’s Ten Commandments bill — has said he hopes legal challenges reach the U.S. Supreme Court so it can overturn Stone v. Graham, a 1980 ruling that struck down a Kentucky law requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Supporters believe a 2022 Supreme Court ruling — Kennedy v. Bremerton School District — cleared the way for the Ten Commandments to return to classrooms. The high court in that case said public school football coach Joseph Kennedy’s midfield prayer after games was protected by the First Amendment.
The court’s opinion also referenced a new “historical” standard to use when determining whether something violates the constitutional clause prohibiting the government from making laws “respecting an establishment of religion.”
A federal court blocked a similar Ten Commandments law passed last year in Louisiana, but the state has appealed.
The civil liberties groups said Texas’ bill would similarly require displays of the version of the Ten Commandments “associated with Protestant faiths,” elevating that over all others.
“Texas communities and public schools are religiously diverse,” the groups said. “Many public school families do not practice any religion at all, while many others practice religions that do not consider the Ten Commandments to be part of their faith traditions.”
Supporters of the bill rejected Democratic efforts to require displays representing other religions and alternative versions of the Ten Commandments. The version that will reach Abbott’s desk would “subject students to state-sponsored displays of the Ten Commandments for nearly every hour of their public education … is religiously coercive and interferes with families’ right to direct children’s religious education,” the groups said.
“We will not allow Texas lawmakers to divide communities along religious lines and attempt to turn public schools into Sunday schools,” their statement said. “If Governor Abbott signs this measure into law, we will file suit to defend the fundamental religious freedom rights of all Texas students and parents.”