ACLU asks Supreme Court to review Texas law requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms

On August 17, 2026, the ACLU and allied civil liberties groups petitioned the Supreme Court to review Texas Senate Bill 10, which requires public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. Representing over two dozen multifaith families, the petitioners argue the mandate violates the First Amendment. The appeal seeks to overturn an April 2026 en banc ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the law in a 9-8 decision, claiming older high court precedents against such displays have been superseded.

Texas Ten Commandments classroom law

• ▪Texas Senate Bill 10, enacted in 2025, requires public elementary and secondary schools to permanently and conspicuously display a state-selected version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom.
• ▪The Texas Ten Commandments statute specifies the size and other physical requirements for the classroom displays.

ACLU Supreme Court petition

• ▪The American Civil Liberties Union and allied civil liberties groups filed a petition on August 17, 2026, asking the Supreme Court to review the constitutionality of Texas's Ten Commandments classroom mandate.
• ▪The Supreme Court petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on August 17, 2026, requests that the high court take up and hear arguments in the case Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District.

Fifth Circuit ruling upholding mandate

• ▪The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas had granted a preliminary injunction in August 2025 blocking the Texas Ten Commandments law from taking effect.
• ▪The en banc 5th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 9-8 in April 2026 to reverse the district court's judgment and dismiss the plaintiffs' First Amendment claims regarding the Texas law.
• ▪The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled in April 2026 to overturn a lower court's preliminary injunction and uphold the Texas Ten Commandments classroom display law.
• ▪Writing for the 5th Circuit majority, Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan found that the Texas law does not violate either the Establishment Clause or the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.

First Amendment establishment clause arguments

• ▪The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the legal reasoning in Stone v. Graham was abandoned by the Supreme Court in its 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District decision.
• ▪The Supreme Court's 1980 decision in Stone v. Graham struck down a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms as a violation of the Establishment Clause.
• ▪The American Civil Liberties Union argues that the Texas classroom mandate violates the First Amendment's Establishment Clause by effectively endorsing religion and its Free Exercise Clause by coercing children.

Multifaith family plaintiffs

• ▪The plaintiffs challenging the Texas law are represented by the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
• ▪Rabbi Joshua Fixler, a Jewish parent from Houston and a plaintiff in the lawsuit, stated that forcing a Christian version of the Ten Commandments on children in classrooms is deeply concerning.
• ▪More than two dozen families from Jewish, Christian, Baha'i, Unitarian Universalist, and nonreligious backgrounds across 22 Texas school districts are plaintiffs challenging the Ten Commandments mandate.