Arkansas Advocate: Parents file lawsuit over state law requiring Ten Commandments in schools

By ANTOINETTE GRAJEDA | Arkansas Advocate

Seven Arkansas families with children in public schools filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday to block the implementation of a new state law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms. 

Northwest Arkansas parents and their minor children who identify as Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, Humanist, agnostic, atheist and nonreligious filed the complaint Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas against the Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and Siloam Springs school districts. 

The plaintiffs are asking a judge to declare the law unconstitutional and are seeking preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent the school districts from complying with the law, according to the complaint. 

Act 573 of 2025 requires that “a durable poster or framed copy of a historical representation of the Ten Commandments” be “prominently” displayed in public school classrooms and libraries, public institutions of higher education, and public buildings and facilities maintained by taxpayer funds. 

According to the law, posters shall be donated or purchased with funds through voluntary contributions to a local school board, building governing entity or the Building Authority Division. Posters that don’t meet specifications required by the law may be replaced with public funds or private donations.

In a statement, plaintiff Samantha Stinson said that as American Jews, she and her husband “deeply value the ability to raise our children in our faith, without interference from the government.” Fellow plaintiff Carol Vella agreed, noting that her children are among a small number of Jewish students at their school.

“The classroom displays required by Act 573 will make them feel like they don’t belong simply because they don’t follow the government’s favored religion,” she said. “The displays will also violate core Jewish tenets, which emphasize tolerance and inclusion and prohibit evangelizing others.”

The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, the ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett serving as pro bono counsel, according to a press release.

The complaint alleges Act 573 violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which guarantees that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” and its Free Exercise Clause, which guarantees that “Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise [of religion].” 

“As a result of the Ten Commandments displays mandated by Act 573, Arkansas students—including the minor-child Plaintiffs—will be unconstitutionally coerced into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture, and they will be pressured to suppress their personal religious beliefs and practices, especially in school, to avoid the potential disfavor, reproach, and/or disapproval of school officials and/or their peers,” the complaint states.

By mandating a Protestant version of the Ten Commandments be displayed, “Act 573 adopts an official position on religious matters, violating the Establishment Clause’s prohibition against taking sides in questions over theological doctrine,” according to the complaint.

In a statement, Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser said the Constitution’s guarantee of the separation of church and state means families, not politicians, decide if and how public school children engage with religion.

“This law is part of the nationwide Christian Nationalist scheme to win favor for one set of religious views over all others and nonreligion — in a country that promises religious freedom. Not on our watch,” Laser said. 

Sen. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, and Rep. Alyssa Brown, R-Heber Springs, sponsored Act 573, but the merits of the legislation were largely presented in committee hearings by WallBuilders, a group “emphasizing the moral, Christian, and constitutional foundation on which our nation was built,” according to its website. 

Supporters of the measure emphasized the Ten Commandments as a historical document, an argument rejected in Wednesday’s complaint. 

“This nation’s core founding documents — the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — were not based on the Ten Commandments, and there is no longstanding history or tradition of prominently and permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms,” the complaint states.  

The complaint cites longstanding court precedent, including Stone v. Graham, a 1980 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky law mandating classroom displays of the Ten Commandments as unconstitutional. 

A federal district court ruled last year that a Louisiana law similar to Act 573 violates the First Amendment. Plaintiffs in that case, which is on appeal, are represented by the same counsel as the Arkansas lawsuit, according to the press release. 

Plaintiffs in the Arkansas case plan to file a motion for preliminary injunction, which will ask the court to issue an order temporarily preventing implementation of the law, set to take effect Aug. 5, while the lawsuit is pending, according to the release.