Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is reminding many schools across the state that they are legally required to post the 10 Commandments in classrooms, despite a federal injunction. 

A federal judge recently issued a temporary injunction, banning some districts from following SB 10, which requires public schools to display the 10 Commandments in classrooms. But Paxton said on August 25, most schools are still required to comply by September 1. 

“Schools not enjoined by ongoing litigation must abide by S.B. 10 and display the 10 Commandments,” Paxton stated in a press release. “From the beginning, the 10 Commandments have been irrevocably intertwined with America’s legal, moral, and historical heritage.”

 

Gov. Greg Abbott signed SB 10 on June 21, requiring “every classroom in Texas public schools” to display the moral precepts.

The law does not force schools to buy 10 Commandments displays, but they may choose to do so. They must also “accept and display” any privately donated posters and copies that meet the law’s requirements. 

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“Faith and freedom are the foundation of our nation,” Abbott posted on X at the time. “If anyone sues, we’ll win that battle.”

Secular activists sued in July, claiming in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights ISD that the law violates “separation of church and state.” U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued an injunction on August 20, temporarily banning districts named in the suit from complying with the law.

The injunction, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, explicitly applies to Alamo Heights, Cypress Fairbanks, Dripping Springs, Fort Bend, Lackland, Lake Travis, North East, Northside, and Plano ISDs. 

The Injunction: Nazis, Kenny Chesney, And A Vintage Movie

Secular activist groups, including ACLU, ACLU-Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, sued on behalf of the plaintiffs. They filed for a preliminary injunction to temporarily block SB 10.

Biery granted their request on August 20, blocking the districts named in the suit from displaying the 10 Commandments. The judge cited some well-known judicial precedents – like Engel v. Vitale, which banned prayer in public schools in 1962, and Abington School Dist. v. Schempp, which banned Bible readings in 1963. 

But he also drew parallels between Texas’ law and the Nazi regime, quoting sources like country singer Kenny Chesney and the vintage movie “Grand Hotel.”

“One picture from the modern era speaks silently and poignantly of the danger of majoritarian government and religion joining hands,” Biery wrote.

He pointed to a picture of Adolf Hitler shaking hands with regime clergy, from “The Christian Persecutory Impulse,” a book that blames Christianity for religious persecution.

Religion developed because humans had “a multitude of theories and hopes” of how to “avoid returning to the Earth,” Biery claimed. He cited Chesney’s song, “Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven.”

“Everybody wanna go to heaven, but nobody wanna go now,” Biery wrote in the injunction.

He also cited the 1932 movie “Grand Hotel,” in which actress Greta Garbo says, “I want to be alone.” 

“Ultimately, in matters of conscience, faith, beliefs and the soul, most people are Garbo-esque,” Biery wrote. 

The judge made numerous other suggestions, like that “separation of church and state” originated with the biblical account of Abraham.

“Abraham ‘separated’ from the ‘government’ of his family history and traditions of many gods to proclaim the monotheistic belief in ‘the one true God,’” Biery wrote.

In the injunction, he also suggested the Texas legislature could “avoid religious rancor and legal wrangling” by requiring “lessons of behavior from many cultures” – including “the Five Moral Precepts of Buddhism.”

The judge acknowledged the 10 Commandments “would not be affirmatively taught,” but said the students would be a “captive audience” and would “ask questions.”

Biery wrote: “Teenage boys, being the curious hormonally driven creatures they are, might ask: ‘Mrs. Walker, I know about lying and I love my parents, but how do I do adultery?’” 

Former President Bill Clinton appointed Biery to the bench in 1994, and he has held the position ever since. In the past, he oversaw a similar case – Schultz v. Medina Valley Independent School District – where he ruled to temporarily ban prayer during school functions.

“The woke radicals seeking to erase our nation’s history will be defeated,” Paxton said in the release. “I will not back down from defending the virtues and values that built this country.”