Arkansas school districts blocked from displaying Ten Commandments

A federal judge has permanently blocked several Arkansas school districts from implementing a state law requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments.

Citing a landmark 1962 U.S. Supreme Court opinion over prayer in public schools, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks said in a March 16 ruling that the state “may have lost sight of the fact that ‘a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and to degrade religion’ ” in passing Arkansas Act 573.

The displays would violate students’ and parents’ First Amendment rights, he said. The First Amendment bars the government from “respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

“The law serves no educational purpose, as the State admits, and consequently deprives Plaintiffs of their rights,” Brooks wrote.

Several civil liberties groups – Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the ACLU, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation – and the New York-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP are representing the plaintiffs, a group of multifaith families with children in Arkansas public schools.

The Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, Conway, Lakeside, and Siloam Springs school districts are defendants in the case. The state of Arkansas, on behalf of Attorney General Tim Griffin, is listed as an intervenor in the case – a third party who’s not part of the original lawsuit but requests to get involved.

Jeff LeMaster, Griffin’s communications director, said the office was “reviewing the opinion and will appeal.”

“Today’s ruling is a resounding affirmation that public schools are not Sunday schools,” ACLU of Arkansas Legal Director John C. Williams said in response to the ruling. “The Constitution protects every student’s right to learn free from government-imposed religious doctrine.”

Brooks had previously granted a preliminary injunction, a temporary measure that maintains the status quo until a court hears the merits of the case. It was issued one day before the law was set to go into effect.