AUSTIN, TX – Texas has become the third state to recently require all of its public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments. Governor Greg Abbott signed the state’s Ten Commandments bill into law last week after legislators approved it by a vote of 82-46 in the House and 20-11 in the Senate. Senate Bill 10 requires all public classrooms from kindergarten through high school to post the Ten Commandments “in a conspicuous place” on a poster or framed document.

The law will take effect September 1, and joins Texas with Louisiana and Arkansas which also recently enacted similar laws since 2024.

As the law reads, the “durable poster or framed copy” of the Ten Commandments must be “a size and typeface that is legible to a person with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.” The sign must also be at least 16 inches wide by 20 inches tall. The law also allows schools to accept private donations to meet this requirement and may use district funds to purchase the displays.

“Very few documents in the history of Western civilization, and even more so in American history, have had a larger impact on our moral code, and our legal code and just our culture than the Ten Commandments,” said State Sen. Phil King, one of the bill’s sponsors. 

The bill also included an amendment requiring the state attorney general to defend schools and pay for any lawsuits stemming from the law. The law could face legal challenges since Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law was struck down last week by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. A three-judge panel unanimously upheld a lower court ruling stating that “unwanted exposure” to government-mandated religious displays can “violate a plaintiff’s First Amendment rights.” The appeals court had initially allowed the displays to remain while it adjudicated the legal challenge. Louisiana could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Any legal challenge to the Ten Commandments in classrooms has considerable grounds for a defense. In American Legion v. American Humanists Association, the High Court wrote that the Ten Commandments “have historical significance as one of the foundations of our legal system” and represents a “common cultural heritage.” Then, in Liberty Counsel’s 2022 Shurtleff v. City of Boston case, and then in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the High Court rejected and overruled the 1971 Lemon v. Kurtzman case. The High Court replaced the “Lemon Test” by returning to a traditional First Amendment standard where courts must interpret the Establishment Clause by “reference to historical practices and understandings.” 

Texas’ new law follows a 2021 state law that requires schools to display “In God We Trust” signs, but only if they were donated by a private entity. In 2024, the State Board of Education also approved a Bible-infused curriculum for its schools. 

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The Ten Commandments is a universally recognized symbol of law and has indelibly shaped the Western Legal Tradition and American government. There are more than 50 displays of the Ten Commandments inside and outside the United States Supreme Court. The Ten Commandments are ubiquitous and their central role in law and government pre-dates the U.S. Constitution.” 

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