Judge orders Arkansas school district to remove illegal Ten Commandments posters
The Conway School District's reckless gamble with Christian Nationalism backfired as a federal judge expanded his injunction
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An Arkansas school district that defied a court order and put Ten Commandments posters up in classrooms has now been ordered by a federal judge to take them down.
I’ve been writing about these attempts to shove Christianity into classrooms for a while now, but here’s the short version of what happened in Arkansas: Their law required every public school classroom to display a copy of the Ten Commandments. Those posters didn’t even need a disclaimer explaining the supposed historical relevance of the Decalogue.
Similar laws have already been struck down by the courts and this was was even more egregious than those, which is why a coalition of church/state separation groups filed a lawsuit against it.
When U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks (an Obama appointee) finally weighed in earlier this month, he issued a preliminary injunction, putting the law on hold, at least in the districts attended by the students involved in this case. Everyone was still waiting for him to issue a final ruling that might apply statewide.
But after he issued his preliminary injunction, the groups that filed the lawsuit—Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU of Texas, the ACLU (national), and the Freedom From Religion Foundation—sent a letter to the other 233 school districts across the state. They explained that Brooks said the Ten Commandments law was “obviously unconstitutional” and that all school districts should take that seriously even if they weren’t directly involved in the case:
Even though your district is not a party to the ongoing lawsuit, all school districts have an independent obligation to respect students’ and families’ constitutional rights. Because the U.S. Constitution supersedes state law, public-school officials may not comply with Act 573.
…
In light of the court’s August 4 ruling that Act 573 is “plainly unconstitutional,” any school district that implements Act 573 will be violating the First Amendment and could be inviting additional litigation. We thus urge you to respect the First Amendment rights of Arkansas students and families by not implementing the statute.
This is the sort of letter that state officials should have sent to all the school districts, but in red-state Arkansas, that was never going to happen because Republicans don’t give a shit about the law if it interferes with their preferred religion. So this was more of a courtesy from the church/state groups, sternly warning these districts that they could also be sued if they dared to defy the judge’s orders.
But the Conway School District did it anyway. They posted the Ten Commandments in every classroom, forcing students to look at it the day they came back from summer break.
In a letter to district principals, Conway’s Chief Legal Officer Shastady Wagner said that the judge’s orders only applied to the four districts name in the lawsuit, not theirs.
Over the course of the past week, the church/state groups asked the judge if they could amend their lawsuit to include two new Plaintiffs and the Conway School District as a Defendant. While you can’t normally modify Plaintiffs and Defendants in the middle of a case, the groups argued they had good reason for this: Their new clients didn’t realize the district was going to violate the law until their kids began the school year and saw the Christian signs. (They asked the district to remove the posters, but administrators refused.)
Judge Brooks granted them permission to amend the lawsuit on Wednesday, and they amended it on Thursday.
In that lawsuit, they explained that one parent emailed the school board as soon as she saw the Ten Commandments poster in her child’s classroom and demanded it be taken down. Board member Trip Leach responded: “To answer your question, NO I do not think I will. I do not agree with you at all, but glad to hear you had a great time at [the open house].”
With dickish behavior like that on top of the defiance of his order, it’s no wonder that, almost immediately on Thursday night, Brooks issued his ruling: That preliminary injunction that forbade the Ten Commandments posters from going up in four school districts? It applied to Conway, too. (He wrote: “Conway Plaintiffs are identically situated to the original Plaintiffs: They advance the same legal arguments, assert the same constitutional injuries, and request the same relief.”)
The district, he added, needed to take the posters down by the end of Friday.
To put it another way, Brooks’ earlier injunction applied to four school districts. Now he’s expanded it to five. We’re still waiting for a final ruling that could apply across the board.
Americans United celebrated the quick action by the judge:
“All Arkansas public school districts should heed the court’s clear warning: Displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms is ‘obviously unconstitutional,’” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Families in Conway School District, throughout Arkansas, and across the country get to decide how and when their children engage with religion – not politicians or public-school officials.”
This “temporary restraining order” is a reminder that these religious laws aren’t gaining any traction in any courts. Remember: A law forcing the Ten Commandments in 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. A similar law in Texas was struck down earlier this month.
What happened in Conway isn’t just a local skirmish. It’s a warning for every district tempted to play politics with the Constitution. While this district’s staff and administration should be focused on making sure students get the best education possible, they’re distracted by their own goal of putting up state-sponsored religious indoctrination posters masquerading as history.
There’s no reason to gamble with taxpayer dollars by putting up Christian signs that have no educational value out of context.
The lesson here is brutal but straightforward: If you defy the courts, you’ll be dragged into them. If other districts want to play this game, they’re going to lose too. So it’s better to listen to the church/state separation groups than the Christian Nationalist zealots running the state government.
The Constitution doesn’t bend to their faith, and neither will the courts.
Thou shalt not post the 10 Commandments.
"The Constitution doesn’t bend to their faith, and neither will the courts."
The top court might and that's really what their shooting for.