Federal judge blocks Arkansas law forcing the Ten Commandments in schools from taking full effect

The judge called the state's attempt to push Christian doctrine into public schools "disingenuous" and "intellectually dishonest"

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Arkansas recently passed a law requiring every public school classroom to display a copy of the Ten Commandments.

Now, less than two months after church/state separation groups sued over the blatant intrusion of Christianity into schools, a federal judge has put a (temporary) stop to it… at least in a handful of the state’s districts.

A Ten Commandments monument (image via Adobe Spark)

A bit of background helps here: Senate Bill 433—later named Act 573—was signed into law in April. In addition to the Christian signs, it required all public buildings to put up a poster reading “In God We Trust.” Its backers insisted none of this had anything to do with promoting religion. (Because they are liars.)

“Every day, as members, we stand on the House floor and we take a pledge of allegiance to one nation under God. We have the ‘In God We Trust’ motto in those same classrooms. We’re not telling every student they have to believe in this God, but we are upholding what those historical documents mean and that historical national motto,” [Republican Rep. Alyssa] Brown said.

Obviously there was nothing “historical” about the Ten Commandments, at least as it pertained to the laws of this country. Even the motto wasn’t a Founding Fathers Original. It was declared the motto in 1956, when the U.S. was using God as a counterweight to “godless” Communism.

A similar law forcing the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms was passed in Louisiana last year, but in November, a federal judge struck it down as unconstitutional, and in June, an appellate court upheld that ruling.

That’s why many of the same groups that filed the Louisiana lawsuit did it again here. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU of Arkansas, the ACLU (national), and the Freedom From Religion Foundation represented seven families, from a variety of religious backgrounds, with kids in four public school districts across the state.

They argued that the kids in those families shouldn’t be force-fed this harmful religious messaging:

Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library—rendering them unavoidable—unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture. It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments—or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that Act 573 requires schools to display—do not belong in their own school community and pressures them to refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.

The lawsuit also noted that this case violated a Supreme Court ruling from nearly five decades ago, Stone v. Graham, that declared a virtually identical law in Kentucky unconstitutional. Furthermore, they said that in both the Stone case and in Louisiana, the Ten Commandments were required to have a “context statement”—a disclaimer of sorts—alongside the posters, explaining the supposed historical relevance of the Decalogue. They didn’t even bother with that in Arkansas. So if those previous laws were declared illegal, this one was even more egregious.

By mandating the Ten Commandments in every classroom, the state was effectively telling kids which religion counted—and which ones didn’t. They were sending a message that kids from non-Christian families (or the “wrong” kind of Christian ones!) were second-class citizens.

The law was set to go into effect today, August 5, just before the start of the new school year.

But yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks (an Obama appointee) issued a preliminary injunction, putting a hold on the law for now, at least in the districts attended by the students involved in this case.

In his decision, he openly declared that this was part of a broader scheme to shove religion into public schools:

Forty-five years ago, the Supreme Court struck down a Ten Commandments law nearly identical to the one the Arkansas General Assembly passed earlier this year. That precedent remains binding on this Court and renders Arkansas Act 573 plainly unconstitutional. 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. 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.

After writing that the Louisiana law had already been struck down and that Texas has already passed a similar Ten Commandments law (which is the subject of yet another federal lawsuit), Brooks explained that while the Supreme Court could theoretically reverse all these rulings, for now, “the law is unconstitutional.”

“The rest,” he added, “is beyond [the Court’s] control.”

It’s really a remarkable ruling because Brooks dismantled every argument made by the state’s lawyers.

For example, they said the families had no legal standing because their supposed injuries were “merely speculative or hypothetical.” Brooks said that’s not the case. Arkansas classrooms will have all the donations they need to purchase these Christian posters, he said, and everyone knows what the posters will say since that’s literally in the bill.

It doesn’t matter if there’s additional material surrounding the Ten Commandments, Brooks explained. The Commandments themselves are the problem here. They “send a message to [the Plaintiffs’] children that they do not belong in their own school community because they do not subscribe to the State’s preferred religious doctrine,” said the judge, adding that it was “disingenuous” to pretend that the families needed to wait to see the posters on the walls before they could complain about them.

You have to appreciate the sarcasm in this footnote:

The State offers no examples of mitigating context either. Perhaps the State imagines that in a math classroom, the surrounding context of equations would be mitigating? Or in a French classroom, photographs of the Eiffel Tower and French greetings would be mitigating? Such speculation is pointless.

Furthermore, it is telling that the State’s asserted secular purpose for displaying the Ten Commandments is to teach schoolchildren about the “historical significance of the Ten Commandments to our Nation’s history, legal system, and education”…; yet the State has never mandated the display of any foundational secular documents of unquestionable importance to our Nation’s heritage—such as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Those historic documents need not be displayed. The only items Arkansas believes a child must see every day in school to convey a proper sense of this Nation’s rich history are: (1) a poster with the words “In God We Trust” and (2) a poster of the Ten Commandments.

Brooks also said the Plaintiffs had an expert witness, Dr. Steven K. Green, who explained that the Founding Fathers supported church/state separation, that our founding documents (like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence) weren’t based on the Ten Commandments, and that there’s no “longstanding historical practice” of putting the Ten Commandments in public schools.

The state’s response to all that? Crickets.

The State cites only caselaw, rather than historical sources, to support its argument that posting the Ten Commandments on classroom walls is consistent with historical practices and does not violate the Establishment Clause… Suffice it to say that the only credible evidence of record in this case that explains the relevant historical practices was supplied by Dr. Green.

The judge also said it was “intellectually dishonest” for the state to claim these were “passive” displays that the students could simply ignore: “After all, the State surely expects that the Commandments will actually be read by students.”

The bottom line is that the Plaintiffs have a strong case, so for the time being, the law won’t go into effect in the districts they attend. We’re only talking about 4 of the state’s 237 districts, but they include Springdale, Bentonville, and Fayetteville, which are among the largest in Arkansas.

A final ruling—hopefully one that’s more broadly applicable—will come later, but there’s no reason to think it’ll be any different. That’s not going to stop Arkansas Republicans from fighting it anyway:

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office shared a statement Monday evening after the ruling.

“I am reviewing the court’s order and assessing our legal options,” Griffin said.

While some legal cases depend on how a judge interprets the facts, this one was about as clear-cut as they come. Arkansas passed an illegal law, made up details about American history to defend their position, and practically bragged about their true intentions along the way. The judge noticed all of that—and ruled accordingly.

It’s no wonder the church/state separation groups were celebrating last night:

“Public schools are not Sunday schools,” said Heather L. Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s 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.”

“Today’s ruling is a victory for Arkansas families and for the First Amendment,” said John Williams, legal director for the ACLU of Arkansas. “The court saw through this attempt to impose religious doctrine in public schools and upheld every student’s right to learn free from government-imposed faith. We’re proud to stand with our clients — families of many different backgrounds — who simply want their kids to get an education.”

“We are delighted that reason and our secular Constitution have prevailed, and that children will be spared this unconstitutional proselytizing,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. “Our public schools exist to educate, not to evangelize a captive audience.”

While the law goes into effect today, most public schools in Arkansas open back up for kids next Tuesday. Many of those schools will have Ten Commandments posters on the wall… unless the courts step in to block them. It can’t happen soon enough. This entire charade shows Arkansas’ willingness to violate the Constitution in a cynical ploy to score political points with conservative Christians.

Brooks’ ruling wasn’t just a legal setback for Arkansas Republicans. It was a devastating exposure of their dishonest, sectarian agenda. If this case proves anything, it’s that we need more families pushing back. They need to decide whether they want schools that educate their kids or churches that masquerade as classrooms.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

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