Overview
- All 17 active Fifth Circuit judges granted en banc review and set arguments for January, consolidating the Texas and Louisiana appeals and bypassing the usual three-judge panel.
- Texas Senate Bill 10, which took effect Sept. 1, requires a conspicuous 16-by-20-inch English-language Ten Commandments poster in every public classroom.
- U.S. District Judge Fred Biery temporarily blocked displays in 11 Texas school districts, while Attorney General Ken Paxton instructed districts not covered by the injunction to post the Decalogue.
- A Fifth Circuit panel in June upheld an injunction against Louisiana’s law, finding it likely violates the First Amendment.
- Advocacy and litigation continue regionally, including $1 poster distribution by Texas Values and a separate lawsuit against Arkansas’s similar mandate by Americans United, the ACLU, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.