The push to require Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms has suffered new legal setbacks. A federal judge ordered 14 Texas districts, including Fort Worth, Arlington and Conroe, to remove classroom posters, finding the displays risk exposing students to unwelcome religious messages. The ruling echoes recent federal decisions in Louisiana and Arkansas and rests on long-standing First Amendment principles established in Stone v. Graham (1980), which found such posters served no legitimate educational purpose.
Federal Judge Orders Ten Commandments Removed From 14 Texas School Districts
The push to require Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms has suffered new legal setbacks. A federal judge ordered 14 Texas districts, including Fort Worth, Arlington and Conroe, to remove classroom posters, finding the displays risk exposing students to unwelcome religious messages. The ruling echoes recent federal decisions in Louisiana and Arkansas and rests on long-standing First Amendment principles established in Stone v. Graham (1980), which found such posters served no legitimate educational purpose.
09:35 PM, 11/19/2025Politics
A federal judge has ordered that Ten Commandments posters be removed from classrooms in 14 Texas public school districts, a decision families said protects their religious freedom and reinforces the separation of church and state.
Judge Orlando L. Garcia ruled that the displays must come down by next month in districts that include Fort Worth, Arlington and Conroe. He found that "it is impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays" without stopping school districts from enforcing the state law that authorized the posters.
"It is impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays." — Judge Orlando L. Garcia
The ruling follows similar federal decisions earlier this year: a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision blocking a Louisiana law and a preliminary injunction against a comparable Arkansas statute. In each case, courts concluded that state-mandated displays of the Decalogue raise serious constitutional concerns.
Advocates who brought the Texas suit praised the ruling. Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "All Texas public school districts should heed the court's clear warning: It's plainly unconstitutional to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Families throughout Texas and across the country get to decide how and when their children engage with religion — not politicians or public-school officials."
There are practical and doctrinal reasons these displays are contested. Different religious traditions honor the Ten Commandments but present and number them differently, which creates an obvious problem when a state attempts to adopt or endorse a single version for public classrooms.
The legal background is decisive. In Stone v. Graham (1980), the U.S. Supreme Court held that posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms was unconstitutional, calling the Decalogue "undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths" and finding that its display "serves no . . . educational function." That precedent remains central to the current litigation.
From Stone v. Graham (1980): "[The Ten Commandments] is undeniably a sacred text in the Jewish and Christian faiths" and its display "serves no . . . educational function."
Some state officials have pressed similar mandates despite existing precedent, apparently betting that shifts on the Supreme Court could eventually allow renewed government endorsement of particular religious texts. For now, lower federal courts continue to block those efforts, finding they threaten the constitutional wall between church and state.
This decision updates earlier related coverage of legal challenges to Ten Commandments display laws in multiple states.