Legal Challenges to Texas’ Ten Commandments Law, SB 10

Starting in July 2025, dozens of Texas families of different religious and nonreligious backgrounds have filed three separate lawsuits to block Senate Bill 10, a new state law requiring all public elementary and secondary schools to display a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. These plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel.

The organizations filed their first lawsuit, Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, challenging S.B. 10 in July 2025 on behalf of 16 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families. U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction in August preventing the 11 defendant school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments.

The defendants in the  Nathan case have appealed that decision and the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has agreed to hear the case (along with a case challenging a similar law in Louisiana) en banc on Jan. 20, 2026. The court injunctions blocking the schools from displaying the Ten Commandments remain in place while the appeal is pending.

Despite the Nathan court ruling that the displays would be “plainly unconstitutional,” some Texas school districts that weren’t defendants in the Nathan case began to display or announced their intention to display Ten Commandments posters. In response, the organizations filed a second lawsuit, Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District, on behalf of a new group of 15 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families who attend 14 of these districts. U.S. District Judge Orlando L. Garcia on Nov. 18, 2025, issued a preliminary injunction requiring those districts to remove the displays by Dec. 1, 2025, and prohibiting them from posting new displays. Throughout this ongoing litigation, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued statements instructing school districts to follow S.B. 10 unless a court has ordered them not to do so, and Paxton has sued three school districts to enforce the law.

Even after two federal judges in Texas had ruled S.B. 10 unconstitutional, school districts across the state continued to display the Ten Commandments.  Consequently, on Dec. 2, 2025, the organizations, on behalf of a group of 18 multifaith and nonreligious Texas families, filed a class action lawsuit — Ashby v. Schertz-Cibolo-Universal ISD — to stop all Texas public school districts that are not already involved in active litigation or subject to an injunction from displaying the Ten Commandments in every classroom. With more than 1,000 school districts in Texas, a class action lawsuit is the most effective way to protect the religious freedom of all Texas public school children and their families. As of Jan. 7, 2026, the case is pending, and there is no court order yet.