A district judge ruled on Monday to block Arkansas’s new law regarding the Ten Commandments hung in classrooms in four school districts.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks, an appointee of former President Obama, ruled it could not be applied to some of the largest school districts in the state, but dozens of others will still be required to hang the posters as the academic year begins.
“Why would Arkansas pass an obviously unconstitutional law? Most likely because the State is part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms,” the judge said in the ruling.
“These states view the past decade of rulings by the Supreme Court on religious displays in public spaces as a signal that the Court would be open to revisiting its precedent on religious displays in the public-school context,” Brooks added.
The law, similar to those challenged in Louisiana and Texas, says the Ten Commandments must be displayed in easily readable letters in every public school classroom.
Both the laws in Texas and Louisiana have been blocked by the court but both are also fighting back.
“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” said Heather Weaver, senior counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “Today’s decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed and can learn without worrying that they do not live up to the state’s preferred religious beliefs.”
The ACLU, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation filed the lawsuit on behalf of a group of families. It is unclear if the groups will fight for a broader injunction of the law for all Arkansas public schools.
The Hill has reached out to the attorney general of Arkansas for comment.
