Texas public schools can display Ten Commandments, appeals court rules

AUSTIN, Texas - The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that displays of the Ten Commandments can remain in Texas public school classrooms.

The court ruled Texas' Senate Bill 10 does not violate the First Amendment's Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause.

What they're saying:

"S.B. 10 looks nothing like a historical religious establishment. It does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams," the court said. "It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason."

In regard to the Free Exercise Clause, the court disagreed with the argument that exposing children to religious language constituted indoctrination.

"S.B. 10 authorizes no religious instruction and gives teachers no license to contradict children’s religious beliefs (or their parents’)," the court said. "No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin."

The court's decision essentially overturns decades of Supreme Court precedent by choosing to not use the "Lemon test," a 1971 Supreme Court decision that's been used to determine if a law improperly establishes religion.

"The test led to a ‘garble’ of results, with courts reaching conflicting decisions on whether, for instance, governments could display nativity scenes and menorahs, or whether a city seal could include a religious symbol," Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan said.

By choosing to eliminate Lemon, the court also eliminated the Stone decision that declared a similar law in Kentucky unconstitutional.

Instead of using the previously established tests, the court used a "founding-era" test. The test looks to "historical hallmarks of religious establishment," such as the compulsion to "attend church" or "engage in a ‘formal religious exercise.’"

While the plaintiffs argued that the state is using its "coercive power" to pressure impressionable children into viewing a specific religious text that may conflict with their family's faith, the court disagreed.

Duncan said a poster is not coercion or the government pressuring children into engaging in religious worship.

"It puts a poster on a classroom wall," Duncan said. "Yes, plaintiffs have sincere religious disagreements with its content. But that does not transform the poster into a summons to prayer."

The other side:

The court was split on the decision, with Judge Stephen Higgenson penning a dissent saying the majority opinion ignored decades of Supreme Court precedent because they felt a single decision was outdated.

"Our court accommodates their unconstitutional request, supplanting decades of Supreme Court precedent merely because of a single decision the majority deems outdated," Higgenson said. "In doing so, the majority defies foundational First Amendment concepts, ignores the harms students will face, and usurps parents’ rights to determine the religious beliefs they wish to instill in their own children."

Reactions to the court's decision

What they're saying:

In the wake of the court's decision, state Sen. Phil King, the author of S.B. 10, said the ruling confirmed the Constitution does not require history to be erased.

"The Ten Commandments have been referenced throughout our nation’s civic life because they are part of the historical tradition that influenced American law," he said. "The Fifth Circuit properly applied the Constitution as written and understood, rather than rewriting it to scrub away our heritage."

Attorney General Ken Paxton, who led the push to have the case heard, called the decision a "major victory for Texas and our moral values."

"The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it’s important that students learn from them every single day," Paxton said.

Senate Bill 10

The backstory:

Senate Bill 10 requires every public school classroom to display the Christian Ten Commandments. The bill was approved by Gov. Abbott in late June.

The law requires a "durable poster or framed copy" of the Ten Commandments be posted in each classroom. The copies would need to be at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall and "in a size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom."

The bill faced some opposition before passage. Amendments allowing school boards to vote on their involvement or allowing other codes of ethics from other religions were shot down in the House.