It Doesn’t Matter How Many Lawsuits Are Filed, the Contraception Rule Is Constitutional

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — A group of 15 multi-faith and nonreligious Texas families filed a new lawsuit in federal court today to stop their public school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in classrooms pursuant to Texas law Senate Bill 10. The new complaint comes in response to school districts that have or are about to display Ten Commandments posters, despite a federal court’s recent ruling that S.B. 10 is a clear violation of students’ and families’ religious freedom and the separation of church and state. The plaintiffs in Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District also plan to file a motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction, asking the court to require the defendant school districts to remove any Ten Commandments displays currently posted and to refrain from hanging new displays pending the resolution of the litigation. The school districts named as defendants in today’s lawsuit include: Comal ISD, Georgetown ISD, Conroe ISD, Flour Bluff ISD, Fort Worth ISD, Arlington ISD, McKinney ISD, Frisco ISD, Northwest ISD, Azle ISD, Rockwall ISD, Lovejoy ISD, Mansfield ISD, and McAllen ISD. The complaint, filed in a San Antonio federal court, points to the court’s recent decision in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, which held that S.B. 10’s provisions requiring the display of a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom are “plainly unconstitutional” under the First Amendment. The plaintiffs in both cases are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel. “As a devout Christian and a Lutheran pastor, the spiritual formation of my children is a privilege I take more seriously than anything else in my life,” said plaintiff Rev. Kristin Klade (she/her). “The mandated Ten Commandments displays in my children's public school impede my ability to ‘train up my child in the way he should go’ (Proverbs 22:6). I address questions about God and faith with great care, and I emphatically reject the notion that the state would do this for me.” “Forcing religion, any religion, on others violates my Jewish faith,” said plaintiff Lenee Bien-Willner (she/her). “It troubles me greatly to have Christian displays imposed on my children. Not only is the text not aligned with Judaism, but the commandments should be taught in the context of a person's faith tradition. State-sponsored religion, however, does not belong in the public classroom.” “S.B. 10 is a calculated step to erode the separation of church and state and the right for my family to exercise our nonreligious beliefs,” said plaintiff Nichole Manning (she/her). “I am compelled to advocate for my children, for these basic freedoms upon which this country was founded.” Following the Nathan ruling, counsel in the case sent a letter to all Texas school districts warning them not to implement S.B. 10 because it would violate the First Amendment. “A federal court has already made clear that school districts violate the First Amendment when they post the Ten Commandments in classrooms under S.B. 10,” said Heather L. Weaver (she/her), senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “School districts must respect students’ and parents’ constitutional rights, and we will continue to hold school districts accountable when they flout this obligation.” “Texas families from religious and nonreligious backgrounds are once again coming together to challenge this blatantly unconstitutional law,” said Chloe Kempf (she/her), staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “This lawsuit is a continuation of our work to defend the First Amendment and ensure that government officials stay out of personal family decisions. All students – regardless of their race or religious background – should feel accepted and free to be themselves in Texas public schools.” “Our Constitution’s guarantee of church-state separation means that families – not politicians – get to decide when and how public-school children engage with religion,” said Rachel Laser (she/her), president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Multiple federal courts, including in Texas, have been clear: Ten Commandments displays in public schools violate students’ and families’ religious freedom. These displays must be removed.” “We are determined to keep on fighting for the rights of Texas students and their families,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor (she/her), Co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation . “The secular foundation of our country’s public school system is nonnegotiable.” “This lawsuit, brought on behalf of a new group of Texas families, underscores a critical principle: public schools across the state must uphold—not undermine—the constitutional protections afforded to every student. As multiple courts have reaffirmed, the First Amendment safeguards the rights of individuals to choose whether and how they engage with religion, and that protection extends to every classroom,” said Jon Youngwood (he/him), global co-chair of the Litigation Department at Simpson Thacher. A copy of the lawsuit can be found online here: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2025/09/2025-09-22-COMPLAINT-FOR-DECLARATORY-AND-INJUNCTIVE-RELIEF-F-Cribbs-Ringer-et-al-v.-Comal-Independent-School-District-et-al-txwd-5-2025-cv-01181-00001.pdf

From Arkansas to Oklahoma, politicians are pushing religion into public schools. The ACLU is fighting back to defend church-state separation and students’ rights.

LITTLE ROCK — Less than 24 hours after the Conway School District was added to a federal lawsuit challenging Arkansas’s unconstitutional law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, a federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring the district to take down all Ten Commandments displays from its classrooms and libraries by 5 p.m. on Friday, August 29. The TRO follows the court’s order yesterday permitting the plaintiffs to add Conway families and the Conway School District to the suit. In yesterday’s order, Judge Brooks explained: “The Court ruled that Act 573, if put into effect, was likely to violate the First Amendment rights of all Arkansas public-school parents and their children — not just those attending public school in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, and Siloam Springs. . . . The Court assumed that the State would advise the other 233 school districts of the Court’s ruling and caution them to refrain from displaying the Ten Commandments posters they received until a dispositive ruling was entered or these matters were resolved. Clearly, that did not happen.” In issuing the TRO, the court pointed to its August 4 ruling in Stinson v. Fayetteville School District No. 1 that Act 573 is “obviously unconstitutional.” On August 5, the plaintiffs’ attorneys sent letters to every school superintendent in Arkansas, notifying them of the federal court’s ruling and warning districts not to implement Act 573. Despite the Court’s ruling and the letter from the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Conway School District hung Act 573 displays in all classrooms before the first day of school on August 18, prompting swift legal action from families represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. “Conway School District had every opportunity to do the right thing and respect families’ constitutional rights, but instead chose to defy a clear federal court ruling,” said John Williams, legal director of the ACLU of Arkansas. “The court has now made it crystal clear: forcing the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms is unconstitutional. We stand ready to defend the rights of every Arkansan against this kind of government overreach.” “Today’s order ensures that our clients, and all Conway students, will no longer be forced to submit to government-imposed scriptural displays as a condition of attending public school,” said Heather L. Weaver, senior counsel for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. “Public schools are not Sunday schools, and they must comply with the First Amendment.” “The court’s decision makes clear that public schools must uphold — not undermine — the constitutional protections afforded to every student,” said Jon Youngwood, Global Co-Chair of the Litigation Department at Simpson Thacher. “By enjoining the Conway School District from displaying the Ten Commandments, the ruling reinforces a fundamental truth: the First Amendment safeguards the rights of individuals to choose whether and how they engage with religion, and that protection extends to every classroom.” A copy of the order can be found online here.

San Antonio, TX. – In a victory for religious freedom and church-state separation, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction today in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, prohibiting the school district defendants from implementing a Texas law that requires all public elementary and secondary schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. In his decision U.S. District Court Judge Fred Biery held that Texas Senate Bill 10, which is due to take effect on Sept. 1, likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. Ruling that the law would likely lead to unconstitutional religious coercion of the child plaintiffs and interfere with their parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious education, Judge Biery explained: “[T]he displays are likely to pressure the child-Plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the State’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious background and beliefs while at school.” “As a rabbi and public school parent, I welcome this ruling,” said plaintiff Rabbi Mara Nathan. 
“Children’s religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.” “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’ schools 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 major win that protects the constitutional right to religious freedom for Texas families of all backgrounds,” said Tommy Buser-Clancy, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas. “The court affirmed what we have long said: Public schools are for educating, not evangelizing.” “Today’s decision will ensure that Texas families – not politicians or public-school officials – get to decide how and when their children engage with religion,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “It sends a third strong and resounding message across the country that the government respects the religious freedom of every student in our public schools.” "It is gratifying to see the federal court honoring our First Amendment, with the wisdom to understand how wrong it would be to impose bible edicts on public students as young as kindergartners,” says Freedom From Religion Foundation Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Religious instruction must be left to parents, not the state, which has no business telling anyone how many gods to have, which gods to have or whether to have any gods at all." “We are heartened by today’s well-reasoned decision that underscores a foundational principle of our nation: the government cannot impose religious doctrine,” said Jon Youngwood, Co-Chair of Simpson Thacher’s Litigation Department. “This ruling is critical to protecting the First Amendment rights of students and families to make their own determinations as to whether and how they engage with religion.” The preliminary injunction, issued by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, prohibits the school-district defendants from “displaying the Ten Commandments pursuant to S.B. 10.” Represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel, the plaintiffs in Rabbi Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District are a group of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Unitarian Universalist, and nonreligious families, including clergy, with children in public schools. The ruling can be found online here: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2025/08/Texas-SB-10-Ruling.pdf