Faith & Reflection: Voices from the Black Church and Beyond
- Senate Bill 10 mandates King James Version Ten Commandments posters be visible in classrooms, donated and at least 16 by 20 inches.
- Various faiths number and word the Commandments differently, fueling concerns about exclusion and belonging, said Emily Roth.
- A federal judge blocked the law for targeted districts; the 5th Circuit later permitted enforcement, enabling similar laws elsewhere.
- Ken Paxton argued the posters reflect U.S. heritage and are noncoercive because they are displayed rather than taught.
AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) — Three Houston mothers are suing to stop displaying the Ten Commandments in Texas public school classrooms, arguing it violates the state’s religious freedom law and a voter-approved parental rights amendment.
Their lawsuit is the latest challenge to Senate Bill 10 — this time under Texas law. Other attempts to prohibit the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools under federal law — primarily the First Amendment’s guarantee of separation of church and state — have been unsuccessful so far.
The mothers’ suit, filed in Harris County on Thursday (July 30), demands that the displays be taken down and that the court act before mid-August, when the school year begins. The bill was signed by the governor last year.
Emily Roth, one of the plaintiffs, said in a Friday morning press release that the state’s Ten Commandments poster purposefully ignores religious differences in the classroom and will make students feel like they do not belong.
“It teaches students, and their teachers, that exclusion is acceptable, maybe even preferred,” she said. “That is not a lesson I want my children learning from the state of Texas.”
The parents are suing under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which the legislature passed in 1999, and declares that “a government agency may not substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.”
They are also suing under the recently approved Texas Proposition 15 — also known as the Parental Rights amendment — which ensures parents have the right “to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”
Senate Bill 10 requires Texas classrooms to display donated posters of the King James Version of the Ten Commandments. The posters must be visible in the classroom and cannot be smaller than 16 by 20 inches.
However, various faiths — such as Jewish, Catholic and Protestant traditions — number and word the commandments differently, the press release from the plaintiffs noted.
Sixteen families sued 11 school districts to block the new law in July 2025. They argued that it violates the separation of church and state and pressures students to embrace religious principles and values they may not align with.
In August 2025, U.S. District Judge Fred Biery blocked the law in the targeted districts.
A 5th Circuit Court ruling this spring then permitted the enforcement of Senate Bill 10, stating that the Texas law did not violate the Constitution. The court also cleared the way for a similar law in Louisiana.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has long argued that the Ten Commandments are an important part of the heritage and history of the United States. Lawyers with his office have argued that because the posters are displayed rather than taught, they do not qualify as coercive, as students are allowed to ignore them.
This lawsuit comes less than two months after the Texas Board of Education approved a new Bible-infused curriculum for public schools.
The three mothers suing in Houston are Roth, Audrey Rosa Nath and Sanjam Kaur Sohal.
Roth is raising her children without religion; Nath is raising her children across a variety of religious traditions found in her family, including Jainism, Hinduism, Judaism and Quakerism; Sohal is Sikh, according to the press release.
Megan Hassan, lead counsel for the plaintiffs, said that despite the women’s different religious beliefs, they all want the same thing: “For their children to attend school without being compelled to display a message that conflicts with their faith.”
“They did not want a legal battle with the state of Texas,” she said. “They wanted a poster removed from a classroom wall. That should never have required a lawsuit.”
This story is published through a collaboration between Religion News Service and The Texas Tribune.
Read the full article on the original source
