CNA Staff, Aug 21, 2025 / 12:12 pm (CNA).
A federal judge has partially blocked the state of Texas from enforcing its law ordering the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools.
In a colorful ruling replete with off-the-cuff observances on topics ranging from Greta Garbo to the speed of Earth’s orbit, District Judge Fred Biery said the Texas law — signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year — could pressure children into “religious observance” in violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The state government did not establish a “compelling interest” in imposing such a burden on students, Biery said, and further it failed to make the law “narrowly tailored” enough to pass constitutional muster.
“There are ways in which students could be taught any relevant history of the Ten Commandments without the state selecting an official version of Scripture, approving it in state law, and then displaying it in every classroom on a permanent basis,” he wrote.
The judge suggested that the state Legislature could alternately require schools to display moral lessons not directly connected to religious practice, such as quotes from Unitarian minister Robert Fulghum’s book “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
The ruling applies to nearly a dozen school districts, including the independent school districts of Houston and Fort Bend. The suit had been brought by a coalition of parents on behalf of their children.
State Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement to media that his office will “absolutely be appealing this flawed decision.”
“The Ten Commandments are a cornerstone of our moral and legal heritage, and their presence in classrooms serves as a reminder of the values that guide responsible citizenship,” he said.
This is not the first setback over the past year for advocates of displaying the Ten Commandments in schools.
In November 2024 a federal judge in Louisiana blocked that state’s Ten Commandments law, calling it “coercive” and “unconstitutional.”
Elsewhere, in June 2024 the state of Oklahoma directed school districts to incorporate the Bible into middle school and high school curricula, with the state superintendent citing its historical and cultural significance in helping “contextualize” the present-day United States.
One poll in June showed that a majority of U.S. adults support allowing Christian prayer in schools, though other polling showed a larger number believing the practice shouldn’t be mandatory, with more than half opposing teachers being allowed to lead classes in prayer.
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Would the judge have objected to the Code of Hammurabi (composed 1755–1750 BC) being displayed?
From the Code’s Wikipedia entry (links omitted):
Modern scholars responded to the Code with admiration at its perceived fairness and respect for the rule of law, and at the complexity of Old Babylonian society. There was also much discussion of its influence on the Mosaic Law. Scholars quickly identified lex talionis—the “eye for an eye” principle—underlying the two collections. Debate among Assyriologists has since centred around several aspects of the Code: its purpose, its underlying principles, its language, and its relation to earlier and later law collections.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding these issues, Hammurabi is regarded outside Assyriology as an important figure in the history of law and the document as a true legal code. The U.S. Capitol has a relief portrait of Hammurabi alongside those of other historic lawgivers. There are replicas of the stele in numerous institutions, including the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures.
The Constitution, of which this judge obviously knows little, guarantees the Freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.
We believe that God’s Moral Law as summarized in the 10 Commandments are based on Moral Absolutes which are already written on very person’s heart and mind. Just read Romans 2:15