News Release
For Immediate Release: 8.26.25
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Ten Commandments Bear “Presumption of Constitutionality,” says First Liberty Institute to Texas Superintendents
The letter follows Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s instructions that schools, not blocked by recent litigation, should post the historic document.
Plano, TX—Attorneys at First Liberty Institute sent a letter to 1,200 Texas school superintendents encouraging continued compliance with Texas Bill S.B. 10., that requires public schools to post the Ten Commandments. A single federal district court judge enjoined just eleven of the state’s school districts from following the law, relying heavily on precedent First Liberty recently helped overturn in cases like American Legion v. American Humanist Association and Kennedy v. Bremerton School District.
You can read the full letter here.
“The Supreme Court settled this debate. Displays such as the Ten Commandments that are part of the history and tradition of America are presumed to be Constitutional,” said Kelly Shackelford, President, CEO and Chief Counsel at First Liberty. “Displaying the Ten Commandments—a symbol of law and moral conduct with both religious and secular significance—is a longstanding national tradition as a matter of law.”
In the letter, First Liberty notes that not only may school districts have confidence in complying with S.B. 10, but to remove the posters now may constitute an act of hostility toward religion: “[T]he informed decision of the Texas Legislature in passing S.B. 10 clearly intends to rest on the side of respecting our nation’s historical tradition and retain its familiarity as important to the civic life of its students and the state itself. The alternative now confronts eleven of its school districts now under judicial directive: a ‘government that roams the land, tearing down monuments with religious symbolism and scrubbing away any reference to the divine [which] will strike many as aggressively hostile to religion.’”
As the letter concludes, “Posters of the Ten Commandments displayed according to S.B. 10 bear a presumption of Constitutionality and should remain. You should resist calls to tear down such posters, lest you demonstrate a hostility toward religion at odds with our nation’s historical commitments, state law, Supreme Court precedent, and the Constitution itself.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is a non-profit public interest law firm and the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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