Federal judge blocks Arkansas Ten Commandments law in certain districts
A federal judge temporarily blocked some Arkansas districts from displaying the Ten Commandments in their classrooms as required under a new state law.
The injunction from U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks – an appointee of former President Barack Obama – impacts four districts in northwest Arkansas and comes in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of multi-faith families who argued that the religious display requirement violates their religious freedom and parental rights. The law now cannot go into effect until further court action is taken, according to KUAR.
“Why would Arkansas pass an obviously unconstitutional law?” Brooks wrote in his 35-page ruling. “Most likely because the state is part of a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms.”
“Act 573 is not neutral with respect to religion,” he also was quoted by KUAR as saying, noting that the Ten Commandments law “requires that a specific version of that scripture be used, one that the uncontroverted evidence in this case shows is associated with Protestantism and is exclusionary of other faiths.”
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The Arkansas law, signed earlier this year by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, takes effect Tuesday and requires the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in public school classrooms and libraries. The lawsuit against it was filed on behalf of the families by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
Attorney General Tim Griffin, whose office defended the law, told the Associated Press he was reviewing the decision and assessing legal options.
The lawsuit named four school districts in northwest Arkansas — Fayetteville, Bentonville, Siloam Springs and Springdale — as defendants.
The plaintiffs were asking for a preliminary injunction to pause the implementation of the law while the lawsuit is pending, according to the ACLU.
“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library — rendering them unavoidable — unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” the lawsuit stated.
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“It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments — or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that Act 573 requires schools to display — do not belong in their own school community and pressures them to refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.”
Brooks’ ruling only narrowly applies to four of the state’s 237 districts. It is not immediately clear if the groups who filed the lawsuit would seek a broader block of the law beyond the four districts.
ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Bailey told the AP through a spokesperson that “it is clear from this order and long-established law that all should refrain from posting” the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.
Similar requirements enacted in Texas and Louisiana are also being challenged in court. A group of families and faith leaders filed a lawsuit seeking to block Texas’ requirements days after it was signed into law.
Last month in Louisiana — the first state that mandated the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms — a panel of three appellate judges ruled that the law was unconstitutional.
Fox News’ Kristine Parks and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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