Religious Freedom Means No State-Sponsored Scripture on Our Public School Classroom Walls

On April 21, 2026, a 9-8 majority of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Texas officials who argued that Texas can enforce a state law requiring public schools to display posters of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. Signed into law in June 2025, Texas Senate Bill 10 mandates all public elementary and secondary school classrooms to display a durable, large-print poster of the Protestant Ten Commandments beginning in the 2025–2026 school year. In July, sixteen multifaith families filed a suit to block this state law, arguing that S.B. 10 violates the First Amendment’s separation of church state and their right to free exercise.

In response to the update, the organizations representing the plaintiffs put out this statement:

"We are extremely disappointed in today’s decision. 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. We anticipate asking the Supreme Court to reverse this decision and uphold the religious-freedom rights of children and parents.”

As Interfaith Alliance has argued in the past, laws that uplift one religious tradition in our public schools inherently marginalize students from a diversity of faith and secular backgrounds. That is why a true commitment to religious freedom means supporting the separation of church and state and resisting efforts to mandate the teaching or practice of one religious tradition in government funded educational institutions.

Interfaith Alliance has a long track record of defending religious freedom in our country’s public schools and against bills mandating the Ten Commandments in our nation’s classrooms. For this particular case, we joined an amicus brief led by our colleagues at the National Council for Jewish Women asserting that the establishment clause should protect minority religious traditions from needing to adhere to the majority faith. In one of the official dissents on the ruling, they praised the brief as a “cogently voiced” argument describing the fear that interfaith groups have of teachers proselytizing to students with Protestant scripture in public school settings.

In March 2025, we helped organize a letter of 166 Texas Faith Leaders urging their state’s legislature to reject this unlawful bill. We have also worked with national advocates and local faith leaders in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Alabama to oppose similar bills, and we organized a national conference in September 2025 to coordinate our strategies and to build together.

While this ruling is disappointing, Interfaith Alliance will continue the hard work of defending religious freedom in public schools and protecting our country’s students.

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Zev Mishell is the Senior Programs Strategist at Interfaith Alliance

‍The views and beliefs expressed in this post and all Interfaith Alliance blogs are those held by the author of each respective piece. To learn more about the organizational views, policies, and positions of Interfaith Alliance on any issues, please contact [email protected].