Judge blocks Arkansas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments

A federal judge has ordered six Arkansas school districts not to display the Ten Commandments, maintaining that allowing the displays would mean permitting the state to “proselytize to children.” #FirstAmendment #UnitedStatesConstitution #TenCommandments #Separationofchurchandstate #Arkansas #AmericansUnitedforSeparationofChurchandState #FreedomFromReligionFoundation

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Judge blocks Arkansas school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments
By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, March 17, 2026

The Ten Commandments is featured in two tablets in front of the Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Charan, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. | Getty Images/mtcurado

A federal judge has ordered six Arkansas school districts not to display the Ten Commandments, maintaining that allowing the displays would permit the state to “proselytize to children.”
In a ruling issued Monday, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas permanently enjoined the state from enforcing Act 573 against the six school districts, which requires public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, in six school districts: Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville, Siloam Springs, Conway and Lakeside.

The opinion was issued by Judge Timothy Brooks, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama.
Monday’s ruling comes after the federal court previously ordered the school districts where parents of minor students had challenged Act 573 not to display Ten Commandments posters in a preliminary injunction.
“Act 573’s purpose is only to display a sacred, religious text in a prominent place in every public-school classroom,” Brooks wrote. “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.”
“Act 573 must be permanently enjoined,” Brooks wrote. “Failing to do so would violate the Establishment Clause rights of all Arkansas public-school children and their parents and also violate plaintiffs’ free exercise rights. The law serves no educational purpose, as the State admits, and consequently deprives plaintiffs of their rights. Such deprivations, ‘even for minimal periods of time, constitute irreparable injury.’”
Plaintiffs and secularist advocacy groups reacted to Brooks’ ruling in a series of statements published Monday.
“Today’s decision honors the Constitution’s promise of church-state separation and religious freedom,” said Americans United for Separation of Church and State President and CEO Rachel Laser. “It will ensure that Arkansas families — not politicians or public-school officials — get to decide how and when their children engage with religion.”

“Today’s ruling is a resounding affirmation that public schools are not Sunday schools. The Constitution protects every student’s right to learn free from government-imposed religious doctrine,” said American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas Legal Director John C. Williams. “Arkansas lawmakers cannot sidestep the First Amendment by mandating that a particular version of the Ten Commandments be displayed in every classroom.”
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, offered a similar analysis.
“We are delighted that reason and our secular Constitution have prevailed, and that children would be spared this unconstitutional proselytizing,” she said. “Our public schools exist to educate, not evangelize a captive audience.”
Plaintiff Samantha Stinson, who seeks to raise her daughter in the Jewish faith, said she was “pleased the court ruled in our favor” against Act 573, which she condemned as a “direct infringement of our religious-freedom rights.”
“The version of the Ten Commandments mandated by Act 573 conflicts with our family’s Jewish tenets and practice, and our belief that our children should receive their religious instruction at home and within our faith community, not from government officials,” Stinson said.
Texas and Louisiana have also faced legal challenges over similar laws. Last month, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision ruling against Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, while a federal judge in Texas ordered several school districts to remove Ten Commandments displays in a ruling issued late last year.

Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com