Harris County judge lets Texas Ten Commandments posters stay in schools

A Harris County district court rejected a request to immediately block Texas’ Ten Commandments classroom display law, keeping the posters in public school classrooms while the lawsuit moves ahead. The ruling, issued July 31, leaves S.B. 10 in effect in Houston-area schools as families and districts wait for the next court step.

The challenge was brought by three Houston-area mothers who said the mandatory posters create exclusion for students from Sikh, nonreligious and multi-faith households. Their lawsuit says the law does more than raise a federal church-state question: it also runs into Texas’ own protections, including the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Texas Parental Rights Amendment.

That legal strategy marks a shift from most earlier school-display fights, which have centered on the First Amendment’s ban on government establishment of religion. In this case, the plaintiffs are pressing state-law claims in Harris County court as well as broader constitutional arguments, making the Texas law itself part of the challenge.

For local schools, the immediate effect is simple: the posters stay up unless and until a judge orders otherwise. One report said the mothers are trying to remove the displays before school starts in August 2026, a deadline that now depends on the outcome of the next hearing.

The case is now headed to an injunction hearing after the emergency order was denied. That will be the next chance for the plaintiffs to argue that S.B. 10 should be paused while the lawsuit continues, and for Texas to defend the classroom mandate as written.

The dispute adds another Harris County flashpoint to a wider wave of Texas litigation over religion in public schools, with Houston-area parents taking aim at the law in late July. For now, school officials in Texas are left with the same instruction the law gave them at the start: the Ten Commandments posters remain part of the classroom backdrop.