We’ll see if this approach works better than the first one did.
A lawsuit filed this week against the state-mandated Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms argues the requirement violates a parental rights amendment voters added to the Texas Constitution last November.
The suit, brought by three Houston-area mothers, could be the first test of the GOP-backed constitutional amendment, which declares that parents have the “right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”
“The State has changed what I teach my children about religion, how I teach it, and when I teach it,” said Dr. Audrey Rosa Nath, whose two children attend Houston ISD. “I used to spend (my time) teaching them what our family believes. Now I spend it rebutting a text the State ordered into their classroom, in a room where I am not present and cannot answer.”
Their lawsuit, filed in Harris County, seeks to take down the Ten Commandments displays that are mandated by Senate Bill 10. Under the law, public school districts don’t have to purchase posters that list the Ten Commandments, but they must display them if they’re donated. It’s not clear how many districts across Texas have put them up.
The lawsuit also argues that SB10 violates a 1999 law signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush, the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The decades-old law bars a government agency from burdening a person’s free exercise of religion, and the lawsuit argues posting the text in classrooms violates that right.
The parents argue in their lawsuit that the harm is imminent because the school year is beginning next month. One of the plaintiffs, Emily Roth, tried in March to have Spring Branch ISD remove posters from classrooms or simultaneously include displays from other faiths, but the school board unanimously voted against her requests.
She told Hearst Newspapers at the time she felt “the system has failed.” Roth is the only one of the three parents seeking monetary damages from her children’s district.
This appears to have been filed in state court, which makes sense since the challenges are about a state law and a recent amendment to the state constitution. The federal lawsuits that had been filed previously all won in the district court but were then jacked up by the Fifth Circuit, on a very close vote that might actually run into problems with SCOTUS. I thought those lawsuits made a lot of sense and I think this one does too. It’s mostly a matter of how far sophistry, motivated reasoning, and a desire to consider some forms of religion to be more equal than others will go with the Supreme Court justices that will ultimately decide this. I wish everyone involved the best of luck. The Trib and Houston Public Media have more.
(I assume this is the same Audrey Nath who ran for HISD Board in 2025 and for the open District C seat earlier this year.)
It is the same Audrey…and she’s a Rice alum!
I’m willing to compromise. I’ll allow a posting of the 10 Commandments in schools if they are properly annotated with how many times Trump has violated them. And how many times Paxton has violated them.
Speaking of Texas schools —
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/2/800076432/cartoon/jump-for-history/