DALLAS — The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas can require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms, lifting a lower court's injunction against the state law. The full appeals court voted 12-6 to reverse a district court judgment that had first blocked the law in 2024.

The decision held that the law did not violate the First Amendment's provisions against establishing a religion and protecting religious free exercise. According to the court opinion, Senate Bill 10 does not tell churches, synagogues, or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as clergy, punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, levies no taxes to support any clergy, and does not co-opt churches to perform civic functions. The opinion added that the law requires no religious exercise or observance, authorizes no religious instruction, and does not compel students or teachers to affirm or propagate the Ten Commandments, and that exposing children to religious language alone is not enough to make the displays engines of coercive indoctrination.

The Texas Legislature enacted Senate Bill 10 in June 2025, requiring each public elementary and secondary school classroom to display a durable poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments. The statute specifies that the poster must measure at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall, use an easily readable typeface, and be displayed in a conspicuous place. The law took effect on September 1.

Federal judges had issued injunctions in two cases that barred about two dozen Texas school districts from posting the displays. Many districts nonetheless posted Ten Commandments displays by paying to have posters printed or by accepting donations. The full Fifth Circuit heard arguments in January in the Texas case and a similar case in Louisiana.

"This is a major victory for Texas and our moral values," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said. "The Ten Commandments have had a profound impact on our nation, and it's important that students learn from them every single day," he added.

The American Civil Liberties Union said: "The court's ruling goes against fundamental First Amendment principles and binding U.S. Supreme Court authority. The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction. This decision tramples those rights."

A lawsuit filed in early December 2025 in U.S. District Court in San Antonio claimed the display law violates the First Amendment. The ACLU and religious freedom organizations filed the suit on behalf of 18 families with children in public schools across Texas, arguing they did not want their children to be forced to observe and venerate a state-mandated version of the Ten Commandments each school day in violation of their religious freedom. Sixteen school districts, including seven from North Texas, were named as defendants.