The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, along with other civil rights groups, filed a second lawsuit in federal court Monday to stop more Texas public school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
Earlier this summer, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 10 into law, requiring every public school classroom in the state to include a poster with the Ten Commandments.
Last month, the groups — who are representing Texas families of varying religious and nonreligious backgrounds — successfully argued for a preliminary injunction against 11 school districts in Texas’ largest metropolitan areas. While issuing the injunction, U.S. Judge Fred Biery wrote the new law "likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution.
"This [new] lawsuit is a continuation of our work to defend the First Amendment and ensure that government officials stay out of personal family decisions," said Chloe Kempf, a staff attorney at the ACLU Texas. "All students — regardless of their race or religious background — should feel accepted and free to be themselves in Texas public schools."
The new lawsuit, filed in the same San Antonio district court as the initial lawsuit, names another 14 districts as defendants — including Georgetown ISD. They are located in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio areas as well as the Rio Grande Valley.
Conroe ISD, a district north of Houston that is named as a defendant, had initially paused its rollout of Ten Commandments posters after Biery issued the temporary injunction that applied to 11 other school districts. Conroe ISD wrote in a statement at the time that it was waiting for "further guidance" from the courts.
However, the district changed course a week later after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released a statement urging all districts not bound by the injunction to move forward and display the posters. At the time, Conroe ISD acknowledged that while further court action may require the posters to be removed, it planned to "continue to comply with the law as it stands."
A Conroe ISD spokesperson said Monday the district had not yet been served with the lawsuit and that it "will continue to follow the law and will comply with any future judgments or legal proceedings."
A news release from the organizations representing the plaintiffs said this new complaint is in response to districts that have displayed or indicated they plan to display the posters, despite the court's earlier ruling that SB 10 is likely unconstitutional.
The day after the injunction was granted, the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State sent letters to all Texas public school districts, urging them to not hang the posters and remove any displays currently posted.
"Even though your district is not a party to the ongoing lawsuit, all school districts have an independent obligation to respect students' and families' constitutional rights," the letter reads. "Because the U.S. Constitution supersedes state law, public-school officials may not comply with S.B. 10."
Paxton's office, which represents the defendant school districts, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. After Biery issued the temporary injunction in the previous lawsuit, Paxton appealed the ruling and called it "flawed."
There is another lawsuit filed by a Dallas activist group, the Next Generation Action Network Legal Advocacy Fund, seeking to block the Ten Commandments posters from several North Texas school districts. That suit is pending in federal court and names three Dallas-area districts, along with the Texas Education Agency and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, as defendants.
Similar laws requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, passed in Arkansas and Louisiana, also have been at least partially blocked by courts.
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