Texas Ten Commandments Classroom Law Heads Toward Supreme Court Battle

A federal appeals court ruling has moved Texas to the center of the nation’s church-state fight, clearing the way for classroom Ten Commandments displays in a state with more than 1,000 school districts and setting up a likely Supreme Court showdown.

Texas Senate Bill 10 was passed by the Legislature in 2025 and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 21, 2025. It took effect on September 1, 2025, and requires every public elementary and secondary school classroom to display a donated poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments, at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall, using a Protestant-style text written into the statute.

The law drew immediate resistance. Sixteen multifaith and nonreligious Texas families filed the first lawsuit in July 2025, arguing the mandate crossed a constitutional line by favoring Christianity over other faiths and over families who want government neutrality on religion. The plaintiffs were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the national ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

U.S. District Judge Fred Biery blocked enforcement in 11 school districts in August 2025, finding the law likely unconstitutional and concluding it would interfere with families’ sincere religious and nonreligious beliefs. A second federal judge, Orlando L. Garcia, later issued a separate injunction covering additional districts, after districts outside the earlier orders began displaying or preparing to display the posters. A third lawsuit followed, underscoring how quickly the dispute spread across Texas classrooms.

The case then reached the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard the Texas challenge en banc on Jan. 20, 2026, alongside a similar Louisiana case. All 17 active judges participated, a rare signal that the court saw the issue as larger than a routine state dispute. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the court to overturn the injunctions and let the full court hear the Texas and Louisiana cases together.

Supporters, including Texas Values and its president and attorney Jonathan Saenz, cast the law as a religious liberty victory and argued that the Ten Commandments reflect the moral heritage of the nation’s legal system. Opponents say the statute does the opposite, using state power to privilege one religion in public schools.

The Louisiana case matters because that state was first to enact a similar requirement, and the 5th Circuit already cleared the way in February 2026 for Louisiana to fully implement its own law. With Texas now in the same posture, the next stop is almost certain to be the United States Supreme Court, where the justices may decide whether classroom commandments can survive the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause nationwide.