A federal judge has blocked an Arkansas law that required the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in public school classrooms and libraries, adding another ruling to the legal fight over religion in public education. In a written judgment issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy L. Brooks struck down the 2025 Arkansas mandate after families sued, arguing it violates the Constitution’s limits on government establishment of religion.
The lawsuit was filed by seven Arkansas families of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds, and it challenged the law that required the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public elementary and secondary school classroom and library. The suit named six school districts in Arkansas as defendants.
Brooks’ decision focused on the lack of a constitutional basis for placing the religious text in the middle of standard classroom instruction, according to his written reasoning. He wrote that “nothing could possibly justify hanging the Ten Commandments—with or without historical context — in a calculus, chemistry, French, or woodworking class, to name a few,” and he also said there was no need to imagine a constitutional display mandated by the law.
The ruling blocks the requirement, but the scope of Brooks’ decision is still expected to be a point of dispute. The Associated Press reported that it was not clear whether the decision would apply only to the school districts named in the lawsuit or extend across Arkansas more broadly, based on how the judgment is read and enforced.
Megan Bailey, a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, said the ruling “makes clear the law is unconstitutional” and that it would be unwise for any school district in Arkansas to proceed with posting the Ten Commandments. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that she plans to appeal the ruling and “defend our state’s values.”
The Arkansas case follows similar efforts by Republicans in other states to incorporate the Ten Commandments into public school classrooms. Louisiana and Texas have both enacted comparable requirements, and both states have faced federal litigation about how and whether schools should place the text in classrooms.
In Louisiana, the mandate began in 2024 and applied to classrooms from kindergarten through college, with litigation moving through the federal courts for nearly two years. The AP reported that a ruling last month vacated an earlier order that had prevented the law from taking effect, clearing the way for displays to be installed after the full 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals issued its decision on Feb. 20.
Immediately after the Feb. 20 5th Circuit ruling, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry directed schools to follow the law and post the Ten Commandments. The law requires schools to accept donated Ten Commandments posters with “large, easily readable font,” and the AP reported that a conservative advocacy group, Louisiana Family Forum, sent posters to most of the state’s parish school systems earlier this year. Louisiana State University President Wade Rousse said the university intended to comply with the law but, as of last week, had not received the donated posters.
Texas has also implemented a similar requirement, with posters going up in classrooms as districts accepted donations or paid to have them printed. The AP reported that about two dozen of Texas’ roughly 1,200 school districts were barred from hanging posters after federal judges issued injunctions in cases against the law, and that litigation remains pending after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in January.