ACLU files suit against Texas Ten Commandments law

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a Texas law requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments, the second lawsuit filed against the law in just over a week.

Senate Bill 10, passed during this year’s legislative session, requires all public school teachers to accept and display any donation of the Ten Commandments that is a 16 by 20 inch poster or framed copy that is clearly readable. The law is set to take effect Sept. 1, but is expected to be tied up in court — a challenge Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP invited.

In the suit, the plaintiffs accuse the law of violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution.

“By mandating that a state-sanctioned version of the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public elementary and secondary school classroom in Texas, SB 10 impermissibly prefers a set of distinct religious beliefs and dictates and will impose those preferred religious beliefs and dictates on Texas’s public-school children, including the minor-child Plaintiffs,” the plaintiffs wrote.

But Republicans who supported the bill say it has nothing to do with religion, and is merely displaying a text of historical significance.

Texas saw a similar challenge to the display of the Ten Commandments at the State Capitol Building in 2004, which the U.S. Supreme Court later ruled did not violate the establishment clause. The Court has also struck down laws requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools in the past, using the “Lemon Test” — a three-pronged test that the Court used to determine if laws violated the establishment clause.

The Lemon Test had three requirements: the law must have a secular purpose, its primary effect must not promote or inhibit religion and it can not create “excessive government entanglement with religion.” But the Court ruled that the Lemon Test would no longer be used in a 2019 school prayer case, and states like Texas and Louisiana decided to give Ten Commandments another try.

The senator who sponsored the bill, Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said that he is not surprised by the lawsuit and expects any court to uphold the law.

“If you don’t know the Ten Commandments, you don’t know the basis for much American history and law,” King said. “We want kids to understand what shaped our history and culture. Few documents have had a bigger impact on western civilization than the Ten Commandments.”

The senator added he is very confident the state will prevail in the lawsuit.

Eric McDaniel, professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, said now that the Lemon Test has been abandoned, states are attempting to change the way the high court evaluates religion.

“This is an attempt to try to have the Supreme Court redefine the way we think of the separation of church and state,” McDaniel said. “You now have seen this movement on the part of several states to see if we can actually put religion in schools.”

Like SB 10, Louisiana’s House Bill 71 aimed to put the Ten Commandments in schools, but was struck down by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in June after the ACLU sued. While the 5th Circuit Court is typically conservative, two of the three judges who heard the case were appointed by Democratic presidents.

The appellate court pointed to a 1980 Supreme Court case which struck down a similar law in Kentucky. Now, the ACLU is bringing a challenge in Texas.

The bill’s proponents emphasize that the Ten Commandments should be on display purely for historical reasons. The teachings of the commandments, including instructions not to lie, cheat or steal, are good values that everyone should agree on, Republicans say.

Sen. King said in a floor speech that children need to be taught the values in the commandments.

“Every child needs to walk in everyday during school and see on the wall that it is wrong to kill, it is wrong to steal, that you’re supposed to respect and honor your parents,” King said. “It’s part of our tradition and needs to be part of our educational system.”

The intent of the law and its constitutionality will now be up to the courts to decide. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she intends to fight for her state’s law all the way to the Supreme Court.

McDaniel said he thinks if the ACLU or Texas takes the law to the Supreme Court, the state may find success, even if the Court limits the law’s effect.

“The Supreme Court will probably limit when it can be used,” McDaniel said. “[The state has] a Supreme Court that is open to some of their goals, but I don’t know if they’ll be open to allowing religious documents everywhere.”

Still, McDaniel said that at the end of the day, the state promoting one religion may have an unintended effect.

“When nations start getting involved in religion, or start backing a certain religion, all of a sudden religion starts to lose its importance, because it’s no longer seen as something separate from the state, but just an aspect of the state,” McDaniel said.