HOUSTON – Three Houston-area mothers are suing the State of Texas and three local school districts in an effort to remove Ten Commandments posters from public-school classrooms.
The lawsuit was filed July 30 in Harris County District Court by Emily Roth, Audrey Rosa Nath and Sanjam Kaur Sohal on behalf of themselves and their six children. The children attend schools in Spring Branch, Houston and Cypress-Fairbanks independent school districts.
The lawsuit also names Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath as defendants.
The parents are asking a judge to temporarily block enforcement of Texas Education Code § 1.0041, which requires every public elementary and secondary school to display a state-selected version of the Ten Commandments in each classroom. The law requires the display to be placed conspicuously and remain readable to someone with average vision from anywhere in the classroom.
An in-person hearing on the parents’ request for a temporary restraining order is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, in Harris County’s 165th District Court before Judge Nathan Milliron.
Spring Branch mother challenged poster through grievance process
Roth said the legal fight began last October after her daughter’s elementary school principal informed families that someone had donated Ten Commandments posters and that they would be placed in classrooms.
At the time, Roth’s daughter was 5 years old and attending kindergarten.
“I definitely wasn’t planning on talking to my five-year-old about the Ten Commandments,” Roth said.
Roth said she was horrified by the display because she believes a state-mandated religious text could make children from other religious and nonreligious backgrounds feel excluded.
“I feel like it’s such a massive institution that is condoning exclusion,” Roth said. “Kids are supposed to be able to go to public school and feel like they belong.”
Roth said she filed three levels of grievances with Spring Branch ISD. She asked the district to remove the posters or, if they remained, adopt a policy intended to make students of different religious backgrounds feel included.
All three grievances were denied, including her appeal to the full school board.
Parent raises concerns about language and religious exclusion
Roth said her concerns are not limited to whether teachers formally instruct students about the posters. She believes young children notice what is displayed in their classrooms and may view it as an endorsement by their teachers, school and state.
“There is a zero percent chance she did not notice a brand-new, weird, black-and-white poster on the wall,” Roth said. “There’s just no way.”
Roth also objects to some of the language being displayed in elementary classrooms, including references to killing, adultery and coveting a neighbor’s wife.
“My daughter was learning how to read in that kindergarten classroom,” Roth said. “Do I want to explain the concept of adultery? These are adult themes.”
Roth said she does not believe the underlying moral concepts found in the Ten Commandments are inherently wrong. However, she argues public schools should not elevate one religious text over the beliefs of other families.
New lawsuit uses Texas law instead of First Amendment
The new lawsuit takes a different legal approach from a federal challenge filed in 2025.
The earlier lawsuit argued that the classroom mandate violated the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment. A federal judge initially blocked the law for the school districts involved, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later reversed that ruling, vacated the injunction and dismissed the federal constitutional claims.
The Harris County lawsuit does not assert an independent First Amendment claim. Instead, the parents are relying primarily on the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, commonly called TRFRA.
The state law prohibits the government from substantially burdening a person’s religious exercise unless it can prove that the burden advances a compelling governmental interest through the least restrictive means.
“This is kind of like a parallel lawsuit that relies on a different source of law,” said Josh Blackman, a constitutional law professor at South Texas College of Law Houston.
Blackman said Texas’ religious-freedom law can provide protections beyond the federal constitutional standard, but he remains skeptical that the parents will establish that the classroom displays substantially burden their religious exercise.
“Usually you have people invoking this law to allow them to engage in religion, and they’re trying to use it to stop the state from putting this document on the wall,” Blackman said.
Blackman said the case could be different if teachers required children to read, recite or discuss the Ten Commandments as religious truth. He questioned whether a passive display alone would meet the legal threshold.
“It’s a piece of paper on the wall,” Blackman said.
Lawsuit also cites parental rights
The parents alternatively argue the mandate violates Article I, Section 37 of the Texas Constitution, a parental-rights amendment approved by Texas voters in November 2025.
The provision recognizes a parent’s fundamental right to exercise care, custody and control over a child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.
Blackman said that claim may be stronger in some respects, but he questioned whether simply displaying the Ten Commandments interferes with how parents raise their children.
He said the legal analysis could change if teachers used the poster to instruct children that one religion is true or required students to discuss religious morality.
The parents argue that the display itself carries the authority of the state and forces them to counter a religious message their children encounter every day at school.
What the parents are requesting
The lawsuit asks the judge to:
- Temporarily block the state and districts from implementing or enforcing the classroom-display mandate.
- Prohibit Spring Branch ISD from continuing to comply with the law.
- Order Spring Branch ISD to remove posters already placed in classrooms.
- Ultimately declare the mandate unlawful under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act or the Texas Constitution.
- Award court costs and attorneys’ fees.
- Award Roth monetary damages from Spring Branch ISD for its alleged violation of the state religious-freedom law.
The Friday hearing concerns the request for a temporary restraining order. It will not decide the entire lawsuit, but the judge could determine whether the posters must be removed while the case proceeds.
KPRC 2 has contacted Spring Branch, Houston and Cypress-Fairbanks ISDs, as well as the Texas Attorney General’s Office, for responses to the lawsuit.
A Cy-Fair ISD spokesperson said it cannot comment on pending litigation. However, the following letter was sent to parents about the posters.
“Dear CFISD Families,
As the 2026–2027 school year begins, students may observe a facility update in many campus classrooms. Texas Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) is a state law passed in 2025 that requires public schools to post donated copies of the Ten Commandments in campus classrooms. During the 2025-2026 school year, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD was subject to a court injunction that prohibited it from complying with this law. However, at the end of the school year, the court of appeals determined that SB 10 was constitutional and the District is now required to display any privately donated copies of the Ten Commandments.
Under the law, we are required to display the Ten Commandments in instructional spaces when a donation meets specific statutory size and content criteria. Public schools are not required to purchase posters and CFISD has determined it will not expend public funds to procure the posters. Because display of the posters relies exclusively on private donations, available inventory is being distributed systematically across eligible classrooms as supply permits. To ensure districtwide uniformity, the posters will be positioned in the upper left-hand corner of standard classroom bulletin boards, or in a consistent location on an available wall if a bulletin board is not present. These displays serve as passive building fixtures and are not designated for instructional use or curriculum delivery. The complete statutory text for this law is available for review on the Texas Legislature Online Portal.
The district implements these displays to fulfill state statutory requirements and maintains a position of strict viewpoint neutrality. Cypress-Fairbanks ISD remains committed to its core educational mission of providing a supportive environment that fosters a sense of belonging for all students across the community.
To prevent disruption of normal school operations, all inquiries or secondary donation offers or requests will be handled centrally. Please direct any correspondence on this matter to the Office of the Chief of Staff at 281-517-6332 or brandy.baker@cfisd.net.
Sincerely,
CFISD Communication"