First Liberty Institute filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas in support of the Fayetteville School District after a lawsuit was filed opposing the passive displays of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms. The brief was filed on behalf of Mark David Hall, Professor in Regent University’s Robertson School of Government, Director of Religious Liberty in the States, Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University, and a Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion.
You can read the brief here.
“The Ten Commandments are a symbol of law and moral conduct with both religious and secular significance, and they have a longstanding national tradition as a matter of law in the United States,” said Erin Smith, Associate Counsel for First Liberty. “The Supreme Court already settled this debate, and the District Court should summarily reject the lawsuit by these anti-religion activist organizations. We are grateful to both Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Attorney General Griffin for their leadership on this law.”
In April 2025, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation requiring passive displays of the Ten Commandments in the state’s public school classrooms. Organizations opposed to the law filed a lawsuit arguing the law violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses because, in their words, they involve, “religious coercion and favoritism in matters of faith.” Similar measures have been passed in Texas and Louisiana, and other states are considering similar laws.
In the brief, attorneys argue, “Passive displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools are constitutional. There is no evidence that the founders understood the Establishment Clause to forbid such displays, and there is a long history and tradition of including religious images and language in public spaces. Moreover, there is a long history and tradition of displaying the Ten Commandments in public spaces and teaching about them in private and public schools. The Court should deny Plaintiffs their requested relief and find Arkansas’s law constitutional.”
