I have three things to say about this.
Attorney General Ken Paxton promised to “vigorously enforce” the state’s Ten Commandments display law in a legal advisory sent to Texas public school districts, his office announced Wednesday.
Paxton said his office and the Texas Education Agency will closely monitor compliance with the law. Any school district that fails to meet the standard set in Senate Bill 10 is subject to legal action, he said.
“Texas law has spoken clearly: The moral foundation that shaped our nation deserves a prominent place in our classrooms — now more than ever,” Paxton wrote in the advisory. “As Attorney General, I will do everything in my power to defend this statute and ensure that Texas children may once again see, each day, the timeless truths upon which our laws and liberties were built.”
The assertion that the Ten Commandments served as the “foundational principles that have built this nation” has faced pushback from several legal scholars who say there’s little-to-no evidence that the Ten Commandments influenced the American legal system or the formation of the U.S.
That hasn’t stopped state officials from trying to add the commandments to every public school classroom in Texas.
The law went into effect Sept. 1 statewide. Paxton’s guidance reiterates that the commandments must be legible from anywhere in the room and can only contain the exact text of the Ten Commandments as laid out in the statute, with no additional text or imagery.
[…]
U.S. District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio sided with the families in late August and temporarily blocked the law from going into effect for the districts in the lawsuit, which included Houston ISD, Fort Bend ISD and Cypress-Fairbanks ISD.
Paxton is currently appealing Biery’s decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. As the appellate case plays out, a new case was filed — also in San Antonio district court — with 15 families suing school districts including Conroe ISD. Paxton’s office has not responded to questions about whether it is representing those districts.
There is an evidentiary hearing on the plaintiffs’ request for injunctive relief set for Nov. 5 in San Antonio on the case filed last week.
See here for some background. My three things:
1. Putting aside the ludicrous notion that the Ten Commandments is the basis for our laws – as commenter Mainstream noted, there are no laws in this country that require you to believe in God, not worship something other than God, observe the Sabbath, obey your parents, not tell a lie, not commit adultery, not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, or property – there’s also that matter of the “exact text” of the Ten Commandments. There are in fact multiple versions of the Ten Commandments, depending on your religious faith. I once tried to explain this to someone who was advocating for allowing the Ten Commandments in schools, by saying that as a Catholic school kid the Ten Commandments I grew up being told to obey were almost certainly different than the ones she knew. She didn’t know what I was talking about.
2. That third lawsuit was filed in late September. I wish it could get a hearing sooner than that, but for a federal complaint that’s pretty reasonably quick. I hope the judge rules from the bench then and there, it’s not like this case differs from the previous one.
3. It would be very nice for there to have been a statewide injunction, but this is what we’ve got. It would also be nice for there to be more lawsuits filed, to cover a lot more school districts. Easier said than done, I know.
As a teacher in Austin, I am not sure I/we have “standing” to sue. But IANAL.
If I get arrested or lose my job, however …