Little Rock, Ark. – Seven families of Arkansas filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging a next state requirement that public school classrooms have published copies of the ten commandments, saying that the new law will violate their constitutional rights.
The Federal Demand challenges a measure, Republican governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, signed earlier this year, similar to a requirement promulgated by Louisiana and one that the Governor of Texas has said he will sign.
Arkansas’ law enters into force in August and requires that the ten commandments be prominent in the classrooms and libraries of public schools.
“Permanently publish the ten commandments in each classroom and library, which makes them inevitable, unconstitutionally presses students to religious observance, veneration and adoption of the favored religious writings of the State,” said the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the families by the American Union of Civil Liberties, the Americans united for the separation of the Church and the State and the Freedom From from Religion Foundation. The demand names four school districts in the northwest of Arkansas – Fayetteville, Bentonville, Silam Springs and Springdale – as accused.
A spokesman for the Fayetteville schools said the district would not comment on pending litigation, while the other three districts did not immediately respond to comments requests.
A spokesman for Attorney General Tim Griffin said his office was reviewing the lawsuit and considering the options.
Families’ lawyers, who are Jews, unitary or non -religious universalists, said they planned to ask the federal judge in Fayetteville a preliminary judicial order that blocks the application of the law. Lawyers say that the law violates the precedent of the Supreme Court of Long Data and the rights of the first amendment of families.
“By imposing a Christian -centered translation of the ten commandments in our children for almost every hour of their education in the public school, this law will violate our rights as parents and create a little coercive and religiously coercive school environment for our children,” said Samantha Stinson, one of the plaintiffs, in a press release.
Louisiana was the first state to promulgate such a requirement, and a federal judge blocked the measure before it entered into force on January 1. The proponents of the Louisiana Law say that the ruling only applies to the five school boards that appear in the demand, but the Associated press does not realize that the posters are shown in the schools as the litigation continues.
