Arkansas Sued Over Ten Commandments in Schools [View all]

Source: Newsweek

Published Jun 12, 2025 at 4:59 AM EDT | Updated Jun 12, 2025 at 7:57 AM EDT


Seven Arkansas families filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging a new state law that will require public school classrooms to post copies of the Ten Commandments, saying it will violate their constitutional rights. "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 said.

Why It Matters

The lawsuit challenges a measure that Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law earlier this year, similar to one that was enacted by Louisiana but blocked by a federal judge before it took effect, and another that is advancing in Texas. The Arkansas law, which requires the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in public school classrooms and libraries, takes effect in August.

What To Know

The lawsuit 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 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. The families, who are Jewish, Unitarian Universalist or non-religious, allege in their complaint that the law violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent and their First Amendment rights.

The law "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."

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/arkansas-lawsuit-block-ten-commandments-law-2084382