Appeals court paves way for Texas Ten Commandments law

A U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday that Texas can enforce a state law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools. The 9-8 decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the law did not establish an official state religion. Opponents of the law argued that it allowed Texas to establish a state religion, violating parents’ and students’ religious freedom rights under the First Amendment. The law, enacted in June 2025, requires all publicly funded K-12 classrooms to hang a poster of the Ten Commandments at least 16-by 20-inches in size.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lauded the ruling as a major victory for the state. He said the Ten Commandments have greatly impacted the United States and students should learn from them every day.

What else did the ruling say? U.S. Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan wrote on behalf of the majority that the law did not infringe on either parents’ or students’ constitutional rights. The law exposed children to religious language without engaging in coercive indoctrination, he said. It did not make students recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm them, he noted.

Will the ruling be appealed? The American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, said it planned to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ACLU, along with several other organizations, represented 15 families from different religious backgrounds who sued the state over the law. The ACLU said Texas’s law violated the separation of church and state. The appeals court finding on Tuesday overturned a ruling by the U.S. District Court, which sided with the ACLU in August.

Dig deeper: Read Steve West’s report for Liberties covering oral arguments for the law before 17 judges at the 5th Circuit.