A judge has blocked a recent Arkansas law requiring a copy of the Ten Commandments be hung in all public schools and buildings.
Act 573 was signed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year. In a ruling Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks blocked the law with a temporary injunction, meaning it cannot go into effect until further court action is taken.
By making this call, Brooks thinks the law would be struck down by a higher court as unconstitutional.
Act 573 was set to go into effect Tuesday. The law was put forward by two Republican legislators, Rep. Alyssa Brown and Sen. Jim Dotson. They spoke very little during debate, deferring to representatives of religious advocacy groups like Wallbuilders to speak in favor of the bill in committee meetings.
Supporters of the legislation say the signs will stand as a public value statement. They also say the United States is an innately Christian nation, and the signs were a part of the state’s “history and tradition."
Meanwhile, detractors say it's a clear violation of religious freedoms enshrined in the Constitution.
The suit was brought by the ACLU of Arkansas. They represented several plaintiffs who were non-religious or not Protestsant Christian. A Jewish family in the suit said the translation of the Hebrew scripture did not comport with their faith. The text uses gender pronouns for God, something Jewish people often avoid.
Judge Brooks agreed.
“Act 573 is not neutral with respect to religion,” he said. He went on to say that the law “requires that a specific version of that scripture be used, one that the uncontroverted evidence in this case shows is associated with Protestantism and is exclusionary of other faiths.”
ACLU case documents stress that public school attendance is generally mandatory in Arkansas. Students would be forced to look at the signs every day.
Brooks agreed on this point too. He said the signs “usurp the fundamental rights of the families suing.” He also said the signs could put undue pressure on students to adhere to the Christian faith.
In a statement, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said “I am reviewing the court’s order and assessing our legal options.”
