UPDATED: Full Fifth Circuit to Consider Texas’ Ten Commandments Classroom Law

Original article:

All 17 U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals justices will consider an appeal arising from a federal judge’s ruling that has, for now, prohibited 11 Texas ISDs from complying with the SB10/regular session’s law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every Texas public school classroom.

That’s what the Fifth Circuit announced on Tuesday (Oct. 28, 2025).

Joint Arguments: Texas/Louisiana Laws

The announcement says the entire Fifth Circuit will jointly hear arguments in the Texas case at the same time it hears arguments in an appeal arising from a similar Louisiana law that a three-judge Fifth Circuit panel found in June 2025 to be unconstitutional — only to have the entire Fifth Circuit voting earlier this month to reconsider the panel’s ruling.

Unlike the Louisiana case, the appeal challenging the Texas law will skip the traditional step of first going through the three-judge Fifth Circuit appeals process.

Preliminary Injunction

In the Texas case, (Nathan, et al., v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, et al.), U.S. District Judge Fred Biery issued a preliminary injunction (article) on Aug. 20, 2025, prohibiting these 11 districts from posting the Ten Commandments:

• Note: The preliminary injunction applies to only the 11 school districts that were sued by 16 parents of various religious backgrounds — who were represented by the ACLU and other religious freedom organizations.

Expedited

The Fifth Circuit’s announcement says the time and date for the oral arguments would be posted later, as well as the timeline for an expedited briefing schedule.

• Note: See oral arguments update and briefing schedule.

Meanwhile, the outcome of a similar federal lawsuit involving 14 other school districts is pending in Dallas.