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PULSE POINTS
❓WHAT HAPPENED: A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction requiring certain public school districts to remove displays of the Ten Commandments from classrooms.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Judge Orlando L. Garcia, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and families from diverse religious backgrounds.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The ruling was issued Tuesday, November 18, 2025, affecting public school districts across the state of Texas.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Once again, a federal court has recognized that the Constitution bars public schools from forcing religious scripture on students,” said Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
🎯IMPACT: The decision temporarily halts enforcement of the Texas law requiring Ten Commandments displays, with further court proceedings expected to determine its ultimate fate.
IN FULL
A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked enforcement of a new state law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, ordering several districts to remove the displays while a legal challenge proceeds. The preliminary injunction, issued by Judge Orlando L. Garcia, responds to a lawsuit filed by families of varying religious backgrounds who argue that the mandate violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The plaintiffs include agnostic, atheist, Jewish, supposedly Christian, Hindu, and Baha’i families, all asserting that the state cannot compel their children to encounter devotional religious texts in a public-school setting.
In his ruling, Judge Garcia wrote that implementing the law would make it “impractical, if not impossible to prevent Plaintiffs from being subjected to unwelcome religious displays,” emphasizing that the families do not want their children pressured “to observe, venerate, or adopt the religious doctrine contained in the Ten Commandments.” The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, which helped bring the lawsuit, praised the injunction as a crucial safeguard. Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, stated, “Once again, a federal court has recognized that the Constitution bars public schools from forcing religious scripture on students.” The organization called the decision a “win for religious freedom.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R), defending the statute signed by Governor Greg Abbott (R) in June, sharply criticized districts that chose not to comply pending litigation. Paxton said he has already filed suits against those districts, warning that “No district may ignore Texas law without consequence” and accusing them of “blatantly disregarding the will of Texas voters.”
The dispute arrives amid intensifying nationwide debates over religious expression in public institutions. Louisiana recently attempted to implement a similar mandate requiring every public-school classroom, from kindergarten through university, to display the Ten Commandments in a large, standardized format. That law was halted after a federal court found it unconstitutional, highlighting the ongoing legal friction surrounding efforts to place biblical texts into government-run schools.
In other instances, schools have faced pressure to remove Christian imagery or murals following complaints about religious endorsement, fueling ongoing disputes over where to draw the line between individual expression and government promotion of faith.
At the national level, religious liberty has also become a renewed political focus. In 2025, President Donald J. Trump established a Religious Liberty Commission tasked with examining threats to Americans’ ability to practice their faith freely.
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