LITTLE ROCK, Ark, (AP) – Seven Arkansas families filed a lawsuit Wednesday, challenging the future state requirement that public school classrooms have posted copies of the 10 commandments, saying the new law violates constitutional rights.
The federal lawsuit challenges the measurements of Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who signed the law earlier this year. It was established by Louisiana And one of them Governor of Texas He said he would sign.
Arkansas law came into effect in August and requires that 10 commandments be displayed prominently in public school classrooms and libraries.
“Putting ten commandments forever in every classroom and library – making them inevitable – puts pressure on students to religious observance, respect, and adoption of the nation’s favourite religious Bible,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the family by the American Union of Civil Liberties, American Unity, for the separation of church and state and the freedom of the Religious Foundation. The lawsuit appoints four school districts in northwestern Arkansas (Fayetteville, Bentonville, Siloam Springs and Springdale) as defendants.
A spokesman for Fayetteville Schools said the district would not comment on the pending lawsuit, but the other three districts did not respond to requests for comment immediately.
A spokesman for Attorney General Tim Griffin said his office is considering the lawsuit and is considering options.
The attorney for the family, Jewish, Unitarian universalist or secular, said they plan to seek a preliminary injunction from a federal judge in Fayetteville that would interfere with law enforcement. The lawyer says the law violates longtime Supreme Court precedents and the family’s first amendment rights.
“By impose a Christian-centric translation of the 10 commandments of children almost every hour of public school education, this law violates our rights as parents and creates a welcome and religiously compulsory school environment for our children,” one of the plaintiffs said.
Louisiana was the first state to establish such a requirement, and a federal judge blocked the action before it came into effect on January 1st. Advocates of Louisiana’s law say it applies only to the five school boards listed in the lawsuit, but as the lawsuit continues, Associated Press is unaware of the posters displayed at schools.
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Associated Press writer Sara Klein from Baton Rouge, Louisiana contributed to this report
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