Texas school district ordered to display Ten Commandments in classrooms after legal fight 

Galveston Independent School District in Texas was ordered to display the Ten Commandments amid legal battles in the state over the extent to which religious references can exist in the public sphere.

A judge in Galveston County on Thursday ordered the school district’s leaders to display donated copies of the Ten Commandments, Houston Public Media reported.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is currently running for the U.S. Senate, sued the Galveston school district in November after the school board refused to display the Ten Commandments in violation of Senate Bill 10. The law, passed in 2025, requires each public school classroom to clearly display a legible copy of the commandments on posters at least 16 inches wide and 20 inches tall.

“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 when he sued the Galveston district. “By refusing to follow the law, Galveston ISD chose to both blatantly ignore the Legislature and also ignore the legal and moral heritage of our nation.”

Paxton, who is running for Senate, said there was “no valid legal basis to prevent Texas schools from honoring a foundational framework of our laws, especially under the misconception that a ‘separation of church and state’ phrase appears in the Constitution. It does not.”

The Texas law is at the center of multiple challenges across the state, and Texas families have asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on it as debate has spread nationally over whether religious displays in classrooms are constitutional.

A spokesman for the Galveston school district told Heartlander News it “plans to comply with the injunction issued by the 122nd District Court.” Paxton’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.