Supreme Court Asked to Take Ten Commandments Case

The Supreme Court is being asked to take on its biggest school-and-religion case in years, a dispute over Texas' campaign to hang the Ten Commandments in every public classroom. Civil liberties groups on Monday filed a petition challenging the 2023 law, which was upheld in April by the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in a 9-8 decision, the Washington Post reports. More than a dozen Texas families of various faiths say the mandate violates the First Amendment's prohibition on government endorsement of religion and effectively promotes Christianity to students.

Texas counters that the displays are passive and don't amount to forced religious activity. If the justices agree to hear the case, it would test the court's recent, more expansive view of religious rights in public life and could affect similar laws in Arkansas and Louisiana. The plaintiffs are of varying religious backgrounds, per KENS5. "These Ten Commandments posters only put one version of God in the classrooms that is above all other faiths, religions," said one of them, Rebekah Lowe. She said that's "an absolute problem in a public school."