Federal judge orders Arlington, Fort Worth ISDs to remove Ten Commandments displays

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: KERA Dallas, TX/NPR

Published November 18, 2025 at 4:32 PM CST


A federal judge on Tuesday ordered several Texas school districts to remove Ten Commandments displays from classrooms, issuing the ruling in a lawsuit brought by families who argue the postings violate the Constitution’s ban on government-endorsed religion.

U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia temporarily blocked 14 districts from enforcing Senate Bill 10, the new state law requiring public schools to display the biblical text in classrooms. Garcia wrote that it would be “impractical, if not impossible” to protect students from “unwelcome religious displays” without halting enforcement of the law.

The districts must remove the displays by Dec. 1, and the order will remain in effect while the case continues. This applies only to the districts named in the lawsuit, but the groups behind the case are urging all Texas school districts to avoid displaying the Ten Commandments.

“Today’s ruling is yet another affirmation of what Texans already know: The First Amendment guarantees families and faith communities — not the government — the right to instill religious beliefs in our children,” said Chloe Kempf, attorney for the ACLU of Texas. “Every school district in Texas is now on notice that implementing S.B. 10 violates their students’ constitutional rights.”

Read more: https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2025-11-18/texas-ten-commandments-sb10-schools

[riversedge]

1. Those in charge, including the Gov of Texas Abbott are telling their kids that it is

OK to break the law. This law suit is so needed!!

[azureblue]

16. also telling them

"Do as I say, not as I do."
I would say, sure put up the Ten. But only after leadership, from governor down to school principal, demonstrates they obey the ten. Especially the "do not lie" part.

[malaise]

2. Good

Rec

[rampartd]

3. we have these laws in louisiana

maybe a more effective way to teach values to kids is by example?

[MayReasonRule]

6. Indeed, Those That Think People Embracing Baseless Supposition As Fact Teaches Peaceful Prosperity Failed History

Howdy from Caddo Parish

[rampartd]

8. maga mike johnson country

i usually evacuate to shreveport when the wind stars blowing here in orleans.

[MayReasonRule]

9. Right On Y'all... Time Will Tell If They Rescind The New District With My Democratic Representative

My district would go back to being 'represented' by the Nazi turd that is Mikey Johnson.

Fascist fuck.

[rampartd]

11. the "know nothing" party is still around as long as johnson is in office.

democrats that might beat cassidy or fleming for senate : jon bel edwards? general honore?

[MayReasonRule]

14. Jon Bel Edwards And General Honore Would Be Superb Candidates For The Senate!

I wholeheartedly agree, those individuals each repeatedly demonstrated their ability and desire to transcend the delusionally malevolent abyss that surrounds the Y'all Qaeda Nat-C's within our state.

Given that it is literally impossible to reason with those that reject reason itself, their successes are truly achievements of the highest order.

[Paladin]

4. Thank you, Judge Garcia.

Fuck you, Abbott, Patrick and Paxton.

[PJMcK]

5. The Ten Commandments are bogus

The first three are about worshipping an invisible deity. The next one is about obeying one’s parents. The next four are about secular law and the last two are silly.

They do not constitute American law.
They were written by uneducated sheep herders who knew nearly nothing about the world.
They are specific to Judeo-Christian doctrines that should not be applied to people of other faiths. After all, the Constitution doesn’t restrict religion but it doesn’t enforce it, either.

These fundamentalists are not living in the real world of the 21st century.

[Martin Eden]

7. Do these "small government" conservatives really want public schools indoctrinating their children in religion?

The next step is sermon and prayer, but in what denomination? Are Catholics included? What about Jews and Muslims? A district with a diverse population could mandate readings from the Talmud and Quran. Would fundy Christian parents like that?

Be careful what you wish for, putting religious instruction in public schools. If parental guidance and church attendance are insufficient to indoctrinate your children in religious belief, perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.

[Trueblue Texan]

17. Yes. Yes they do.

But they're too short-sighted to realize they may not succeed in indoctrinating THEIR religion into youth.

[Timeflyer]

10. There's nothing like religion for stirring up conflict, hypocrisy and power/money grabbing.

[OldBaldy1701E]

12. Yup.

[MayReasonRule]

15. BELIEVERS: "Take Thee This Bovine Sharpness, Go Forth And Impale Thine Enemy In Battle!!"

[mwb970]

13. The funny thing is, kids will completely ignore these posters.

They won't even know what half of them mean or are referring to. They certainly won't recognize the rules laid down by an imaginary, insecure "god" as anything they need to pay attention to.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

18. Maddowblog-Court rejects Texas law requiring display of Ten Commandments in public schools

The Supreme Court already ruled against the Ten Commandments in classrooms. That’s why lawsuits against new Republican-imposed displays keep winning.

Republicans in several states keep trying to impose Ten Commandments displays on public school kids.

Judges keep telling them, “You can't do that.”

Take the latest case out of Texas, for example. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-11-19T19:12:20.750Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/court-rejects-texas-law-requiring-display-ten-commandments-public-scho-rcna244778

For Republican officials eager to impose the Ten Commandments on public school students, it’s been a difficult year. In June, for example, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a Louisiana law from taking effect, unanimously ruling that the state-sponsored religion law was “facially unconstitutional.”

In early August, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against a similar Arkansas law on Ten Commandments displays in schools.

Now Texas has joined the club. The New York Times reported:

A federal judge ordered some public school districts in Texas on Tuesday to remove Ten Commandment displays from their classroom walls by next month, a victory for families who had argued that the posters infringed on their religious freedom. The ruling from Judge Orlando L. Garcia … applies to 14 public school districts, including ones in Fort Worth, Arlington and Conroe.

In his ruling, Garcia wrote that “it is impracticable, if not impossible, to prevent plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays” without stopping school districts from enforcing that law.

The ruling comes roughly three months after a different federal court reached the same conclusion in a related case filed by several Dallas-area families and faith leaders.......

So why would Republicans in several states take a step that the Supreme Court has already rejected? It’s likely because they’re confident that the newly politicized high court and its dominant far-right majority will simply overturn the Stone precedent, doing fresh harm to the wall that’s supposed to separate church and state in this country.

These GOP officials are almost certainly aware of the First Amendment, just as they’re almost certainly aware of the Supreme Court precedent that says they cannot legally do what they’re trying to do. But since the court has moved sharply to the right in the course of the last 45 years, GOP officials in Texas and others are counting on Republican-appointed justices to clear the way for more government-imposed religion in public schools.

That hasn’t happened — at least not yet — which is why these state measures keep losing in court in the meantime.