Editor’s note: United Methodist Insight has developed a shared content agreement with Baptist News Global, an independent news service mainly covering issues from a perspective that is Baptist in heritage and ecumenical in spirit. This article was published in Baptist News Global Sept. 18 and is used here by permission.
A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol, June 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments Sept. 22 in a lawsuit filed to block Arkansas from implementing its law mandating Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms.
The hearing stems from Stinson v. Fayetteville School District. No. 1. The action is currently before the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Mo., after a federal district judge ruled the law, known as Act 573, to be unconstitutional.
“Act 573’s purpose is only to display a sacred, religious text in a prominent place in every public-school classroom. And the only reason to display a sacred, religious text in every classroom is to proselytize to children. The state has said the quiet part out loud,” U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville wrote in issuing a permanent injunction in March.
Brooks previously issued a temporary injunction in August last year barring implementation of the law, calling it “plainly unconstitutional.” Injunctions bar implementation of laws pending the outcome of the litigation filed against them.
Plaintiffs in the 2025 lawsuit include 10 multi-faith and nonreligious families who sued the Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale and Siloam Springs school districts. Their attorneys said Brooks’ permanent injunction applied directly to the school districts named as defendants in the lawsuit but added that all districts are legally obliged to comply with the order.
The families are represented by American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Arkansas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Freedom from Religion Foundation and Simpson Thacher and Bartlett.
Meanwhile, the Arkansas Advocate reported in March that some of the state’s colleges and universities had received Ten Commandments displays for installation. “No lawsuit has been filed challenging the law’s enforcement at public institutions of higher education,” the Advocate noted.
The state appealed Brooks’ order in August 2025 with the staunch support of Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“In Arkansas, we do in fact believe that murder is wrong and stealing is bad,” she said. “It is entirely appropriate to display the Ten Commandments — the basis of all Western law and morality — as a reminder to students, state employees and every Arkansan who enters a government building, and I look forward to appealing this suit and defending our state’s values.”
Texas and Louisiana have succeeded in defending their Ten Commandments laws at the appellate level.
Texas’ Senate Bill 10, after being declared unconstitutional by a lower court, was upheld in a 9-8 vote by the Fifth U.S. District Court of Appeals in April. In August, attorneys for the plaintiffs in that litigation asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the appellate court decision.
In February, the same appeals court freed Louisiana to implement its Ten Commandments law. The 12-6 ruling overturned the decision of a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit.
Other states have passed similar legislation. Alabama’s Ten Commandments law is currently set to go into effect in October with displays required by January.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed that state’s Ten Commandments bill July 1. The statute gives school boards the option of placing displays in commons areas such as hallways and cafeterias.
The ACLU, ACLU of Tennessee and the Freedom From Religion Foundation submitted records requests in August seeking information on how districts plan to implement the law.
“Forcing biblical Scripture on public school children violates families’ religious freedom. Families and faith communities, not the government, get to decide what role religious doctrine and belief play in their lives,” the groups said.