A federal judge has barred six school districts in Arkansas from displaying the in classrooms, ruling that such displays would amount to religious promotion directed at students.
In a decision issued Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas permanently prohibited the enforcement of Act 573 in the districts of Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Conway and Lakeside. The law mandates that public schools post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The ruling was delivered by Judge Timothy Brooks, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
This decision follows an earlier preliminary injunction in which the same court had already instructed certain districts, where parents had filed legal challenges, to refrain from displaying Ten Commandments posters.
In his opinion, Brooks argued that the intent behind the law was explicitly religious.
“Act 573’s purpose is only to display a sacred, religious text in a prominent place in every public-school classroom,” Brooks wrote. “And the only reason to display a sacred, religious text in every classroom is to proselytize to children. The State has said the quiet part out loud.”
He further concluded that the law must not be enforced.
“Act 573 must be permanently enjoined,” Brooks wrote. “Failing to do so would violate the Establishment Clause rights of all Arkansas public-school children and their parents and also violate plaintiffs’ free exercise rights. The law serves no educational purpose, as the State admits, and consequently deprives plaintiffs of their rights. Such deprivations, ‘even for minimal periods of time, constitute irreparable injury.’”
Similar legal disputes have emerged in other states over comparable measures. In Louisiana, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently overturned a lower court ruling that had blocked a Ten Commandments law, while in Texas, a federal judge last year ordered multiple school districts to remove such displays.
