A group of Texas families filed a class action lawsuit Tuesday to stop all Texas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The new state law requiring the classroom displays has faced multiple legal challenges, with two federal judges finding it unconstitutional and blocking 25 school districts across the state from implementing it.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has directed the rest of Texas’ districts to display the Ten Commandments and sued some that did not comply with the law.
Tuesday’s federal lawsuit, which was brought by 18 multifaith and non-religious families, aims to build on those rulings and block any Texas school district not already involved in litigation from putting up Ten Commandments posters.
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“The posters convey to my children, who are already told they are ‘not real Christians’ because they are Mormon, that they are outsiders in their school community,” said Briana Pascual-Clement, a Prosper ISD parent and a plaintiff, in a release. “I never want my kids or anyone else’s kids to be attacked for what they do or do not believe.”
Since the law went into effect in September, two federal judges have found it violates the First Amendment’s establishment and free exercise clauses, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion and ensures the separation of church and state.
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“It is impractical, if not impossible, to prevent Plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays without enjoining Defendants from enforcing S.B. 10 across their districts,” U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia wrote in a November order siding with the families and directing named districts to remove any posters by Dec. 1.
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The families in the latest legal challenge want the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to rule similarly and require any schools displaying Ten Commandments posters to remove them.
The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tuesday’s suit names 16 new school districts, including Carroll, Prosper, Richardson, Wylie, Argyle, Birdville and Hurst-Euless-Bedford ISDs in North Texas. It is the third lawsuit against the state law filed by the national American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religious Foundation.
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Dallas ISD has not been named in any of the lawsuits.
The state attorney general’s office has sued three school districts — Round Rock, Leander and Galveston ISDs — for failing to display the posters, saying school officials “blatantly disregarded the will of Texas voters who expect the legal and moral heritage of our state to be displayed in accordance with the law.”
Paxton’s office has pushed back on descriptions of the law as “coercion,” saying posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms is a “passive display,” according to court filings.
“S.B. 10 does not require that any future displays be read, discussed or otherwise incorporated into any specific activity within the classroom,” William Farrell, assistant attorney general, wrote in a July motion.
Farrell also pointed out that posters must go up if they are donated, but school districts do not have to purchase them.
Supporters of the law have said Christianity is an important part of the nation’s founding and history, noting references to God are on U.S. currency as well as in the national and Texas pledges.
Republican state lawmakers have said young people need God and suggested only good could come from exposure to a document that encourages students to respect their parents and not kill, steal or cheat.
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