Emily Roth never planned on teaching her six-year-old about the Ten Commandments.
“It’s a belief system that we don’t follow as a religious doctrine,” Roth told Courier Texas.
But that plan changed when posters of the Ten Commandments went up in her daughter’s kindergarten classroom last October.
The new classroom decor was a result of Senate Bill 10, which went into effect at the beginning of last school year and requires the Ten Commandments be visibly displayed in public school classrooms.
“I find it incredibly unacceptable,” she said.
That’s why Roth, who has two children in Spring Branch Independent School District in Houston, is challenging the new law in court.
Roth, along with two other Houston mothers, is suing the state, Houston ISD, Cy-Fair ISD, and Spring Branch ISD to stop SB 10’s implementation and demand the posters be removed from classrooms ahead of the 2026-2027 school year, which begins Aug. 10.
They’re arguing the law violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which was signed into law in 1999 by then- Gov. George W. Bush—a Republican—and states “a government agency may not substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion.” The lawsuit also cites a voter-approved parental rights amendment passed last year that “affirms that parents are the primary decision makers for their children.”
Roth said she pursued legal action after going through the district’s grievance process, which involved three hearings—a level one hearing where her request was denied, a level two hearing where her request was denied, and a level three hearing with the full Spring Branch ISD school board, which unanimously denied her request to have the posters removed or adopt an inclusion policy of other religions.
“ I find it truly hard to believe that anybody can really defend the Ten Commandments being on the wall in public schools, so when I was denied by the board, I knew that the job wasn’t done,” she said.
Throughout the grievance process, Roth said she was connected to several mothers and families who feel the same way she does.
“We got together and had the idea to cite the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is a different approach to the lawsuits we’ve seen done already,” she added.
The Ten Commandments in classrooms have already survived legal challenges in federal court. In July 2025, 16 families sued 11 school districts to block the new law, arguing it violates the separation of church and state and pressures students to embrace religious principles and values they may not align with. But the US Court of Appeals ruled in April 2026 that SB 10 doesn’t violate the US Constitution, letting the new law stand.
Roth said she believes she has a strong case because her child spent months in a classroom every single day, for eight hours a day, with the Ten Commandments on her wall.
“That is harm that is actively being done,” she said. “ Public school should be a place of belonging, should be a place where literally any and all students can go and feel like they belong. Schools can already be a hard place to be, and seeing your school or your teachers at this massive institutional level of public schools in Texas, basically condones exclusion, it’s not an acceptable message to be sending to our kids.”
The lawsuit comes less than two months after the State Board of Education approved a required reading list that made Texas the first state in the nation to make the Bible mandated reading in public schools. The board also approved a social studies curriculum overhaul that references religious figures, such as Moses, in history courses.
It’s an ongoing trend of Texas lawmakers and leaders infusing more religion into public schools.
Last legislative session, Republican lawmakers passed a new law that allows public schools to adopt a voluntary designated prayer and religious reading time during the school day. In November 2024, the State Board of Education adopted Bluebonnet Learning, which are Bible-infused instructional materials for use in public schools.
“It’s not just a poster,” Roth said. “Not when you add the social studies TEKS changes, and the Bluebonnet materials, and the required Bible reading in there. Individually, these things may seem really small, but that’s what makes them really hard to fight. It’s death by a thousand cuts.”
The lawsuit filed last Thursday does not have a hearing scheduled. The plaintiffs are asking for a temporary restraining order against the three districts from displaying the Ten Commandments while their case makes its way through court.
