Arkansas Sued Over Ten Commandments in Schools

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Newsweek

Published Jun 12, 2025 at 4:59 AM EDT | Updated Jun 12, 2025 at 7:57 AM EDT


Seven Arkansas families filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging a new state law that will require public school classrooms to post copies of the Ten Commandments, saying it will violate their constitutional rights. "Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom and library—rendering them unavoidable—unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state's favored religious scripture," the lawsuit said.

Why It Matters

The lawsuit challenges a measure that Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law earlier this year, similar to one that was enacted by Louisiana but blocked by a federal judge before it took effect, and another that is advancing in Texas. The Arkansas law, which requires the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in public school classrooms and libraries, takes effect in August.

What To Know

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the families by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas. The families, who are Jewish, Unitarian Universalist or non-religious, allege in their complaint that the law violates longstanding Supreme Court precedent and their First Amendment rights.

The law "also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments—or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that Act 573 requires schools to display—do not belong in their own school community and pressures them to refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state's religious preferences."

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/arkansas-lawsuit-block-ten-commandments-law-2084382

---

Link to Americans United for Separate of Church and State PRESS RELEASE - AU & allies sue over Arkansas law mandating Ten Commandments in public schools

Link to SUIT (PDF) - https://www.au.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Stinson-v.-Fayetteville-School-District-Complaint-6.11.25.pdf

[travelingthrulife]

1. Good.

[Ilsa]

2. I'm so glad the lawsuits have started.

Besides, if they are going to be posted, display them in Hebrew!

[cbabe]

5. Moses would've been speaking an Afro-asiatic language. Not sure about god.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_language

Egyptian language

The Egyptian language, or Ancient Egyptian (r n kmt;[1][note 3] 'speech of Egypt'), is an extinct branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large corpus of surviving texts, which were made accessible to the modern world following the decipherment of the ancient Egyptian scripts in the early 19th century.

… more …

(Make signs with hieroglyphics.)

[Ilsa]

9. Thank you. My ancient history, anything BCE, is

poor, and only springs to life when my imagination fills the gaps.

[cbabe]

10. Afro. Asiatic. Two words to strike fear in a maga. Cheers backatcha.

[Americanme]

3. People have a right to any religion they want

But I should not be expected to share their belief. I still resent being pressured to pretend I believed in the invisible magic man, as a child back in the 60's. They have the freedom to observe their religion in their homes, in their churches, they can quietly observe it in schools without forcing it on everyone else.

[Norrrm]

4. Which version of the TCs is the official state-approved list? There are differences.

Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not murder.

Many of our right wing brethren want to put forced public prayer and the Bible back in the schools.

They have no qualms about using the gov't to foist their own religious beliefs on the children in public schools without letting the parents decide how they want their children raised.

[Grins]

11. I looked it up!!!

Had the same question.

The SPECIFIC version they put into the bill was from a combination of Exodus 20: 2-17, and Deuteronomy 5: 6-21 (so already a bastardized very) - from the King James Version of the Bible.

That ‘graven image’ part is a real pisser!

[Norrrm]

13. The Bible has all the answers... IF:

The Bible has all the answers... IF:
you cherry-pick the parts you like.
you reinterpret the parts that are inconvenient.
you ignore the parts you don't like.

[sakabatou]

6. Huckabee (R-Idiot): No one is gonna sue us over this!

[twodogsbarking]

7. Don't be cruel. That should cover most everything.

[0rganism]

8. These days, such a statement is viewed as partisan political speech

Can't put up anything that might make cruel people uncomfortable, doncha know

[Grins]

12. Want to make the Arkansas Bible-bangers really howl??

Agree to accept the Commandments in every classroom - BUT with one small change:

Drop the first 3 (or 4, depending on your version.). But keep everything after Honor your parents.

That makes it secular. If they howl - then they are admitting to their real motivation.