Latest 10 Commandment lawsuit: Three Houston moms say law violates constitution

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(The Center Square) – A second lawsuit challenging a state law requiring the 10 Commandments to be posted in Texas public school classrooms gets its first hearing on Friday. 

Harris County residents Audrey Nath, Emily Roth and Sanjam Kaur Sohal sued Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath in Harris County District Court arguing a new law in effect is illegal. 

They are challenging SB 10, which amended Texas Education Code § 1.0041 to require every public elementary and secondary school classroom to display a poster of the King James translation of the Ten Commandments of the Bible (Exodus 20:2-17). 

The mothers’ children attend public schools in Cypress-Fairbanks, Spring Branch and Houston independent school districts where the posters are on display.

Judge Nathan Milliron is set to hear the case in Harris County’s 165th District Court on Friday afternoon. The plaintiffs have requested a temporary restraining order to remove 10 Commandment posters from public school classrooms. 

Unlike the first lawsuit challenging SB 10 along federal constitutional grounds, the Houston area moms argue it violates their rights protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA) and the Parental Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution. 

Passed in 1999, the TRFRA states that a “government agency may not substantially burden a person's free exercise of religion.”

Voters approved the parental rights measure last November as a constitutional amendment. It states parents have the right “to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”

It’s the mothers’ different religious backgrounds that united them to advocate for religious freedom and parental rights, their attorney, Megan Hassan, said. They, along with many other parents who’ve expressed opposition to the law don’t want their children to attend a school that is “compelled to display a message that conflicts with their faith,” Hassan said.

Nath says she’s raising her children to learn multiple religions, including Hinduism, Jainism, Judaism and Quakerism. Roth says her children are receiving no religious upbringing. Sohal is raising her children as Sikhs. 

Hassan told the Texas Tribune that the mothers didn’t “want a legal battle with the state of Texas. They wanted a poster removed from a classroom wall. That should never have required a lawsuit.”

Roth said she filed three grievances with Spring Branch ISD asking for the posters to be removed or for the district to adopt a policy to support students of different religious or no religious backgrounds. All of her requests were denied, KPRC NBC News Houston reported. 

She argues the poster ignores religious differences and state policy will make students feel excluded. As a result, the lesson being taught is “that exclusion is acceptable, maybe even preferred. That is not a lesson I want my children learning from the state of Texas,” she said.

Rothman’s ruling could impact school districts ahead of a new school year that begins in a few weeks. It’s also expected to bring another challenge to the same law within a year to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last year, 15 families and religious leaders sued multiple school districts in Texas to stop SB 10 from going into effect, arguing the law violates the First Amendment and the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. 

The district court ruled in their favor and the state appealed to the Fifth Circuit. A panel of three judges agreed with the lower court, prompting the state to request that the full court hear the case. 

It did and in April, the full court ruled the law didn’t violate the First Amendment or Establishment Clause. The ruling came after the full court upheld a similar law in Louisiana on a technicality, The Center Square reported. Both laws remain in effect.

Counsel representing the parents in this case said they plan to appeal to the Supreme Court to reverse the Fifth Circuit ruling “and uphold the religious freedom rights of children and parents.”

One of its plaintiffs, Texas Rabbi Mara Nathan, maintains that while the 10 Commandments are a sacred text to her and many others, they have “no place on the walls of public-school classrooms. Children's religious beliefs should be instilled by parents and faith communities, not politicians and public schools.”