Federal appeals court will hear arguments in Texas' and Louisiana's Ten Commandments cases in January [View all]

A federal appeals court next year will hear Texas’ arguments against a ruling that blocked nearly a dozen school districts from displaying posters of the Ten Commandments.

The 17 active judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in January will hear both the Texas case and a similar case happening in Louisiana, which was the first state to pass a requirement to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

A federal judge in August found Texas’ Ten Commandments law unconstitutional and temporarily blocked it from taking full effect, following an initial lawsuit against 11 school districts. The complaint was brought forth by 16 families of various religious and nonreligious backgrounds, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and a coalition of religious freedom organizations. The civil rights groups later sued 14 more districts.

The ruling only applied to the 11 school districts named in the groups’ first lawsuit, though attorneys expressed hope in court that other districts would not implement the law. But those lawyers later told the same court in a legal filing that many districts are implementing the new law or have signaled an intent to do so.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/26/texas-schools-commandments-requirement-lawsuit/