Julia Reihs | KUT News
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Galveston Independent School District on Friday for its refusal to display the Ten Commandments inside of school classrooms as required by a new state law that’s being challenged in federal court.
Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this summer signed Senate Bill 10 into law, requiring every public school classroom in the state to include a poster with the Ten Commandments. Some Houston-area school districts’ elected boards of trustees have taken up votes to initiate the new requirements.
Following a civil rights lawsuit this year challenging the law, a federal judge in August temporarily blocked 11 Texas school districts from displaying the biblical posters in classrooms, finding the law likely violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments in the dispute next year.
The attorney general’s litigation targeting the small island school district comes weeks after an Oct. 22 meeting in which the Galveston ISD board of trustees voted to delay the postings while the question is held up in court.
Elizabeth Beeton, a Galveston school board trustee, who placed the Ten Commandments item on the agenda, said that certain legislation in Texas — like vouchers that provide public funds for private school education — makes it difficult for public schools to compete.
“My reason for placing this item on the agenda is not really about the ironies or wisdom or lack thereof with the Ten Commandments law, it is that the law is unconstitutional,” she said during the October meeting.
Before the school board voted 4-3 to delay displaying the posters, trustees heard both support and backlash from public speakers about the decision on whether to adhere with the state’s controversial law.
In a statement Friday, Paxton said that the Galveston school district chose to ignore the legislature and the “legal and moral heritage of our nation.”
“America is a Christian nation, and it is imperative that we display the very values and timeless truths that have historically guided the success of our country,” Paxton said.
In a press release, he also said there’s no valid legal basis to prevent Texas schools from honoring a framework of state laws, “especially under the misconception that a ‘separation of church and state’ phrase appears in the Constitution,” he said.
The school district could not immediately be reached for comment.
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