Simpson Thacher, alongside the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, secured a victory in a federal district court in San Antonio, Texas on behalf of more than a dozen families challenging the state’s recently enacted law that would require all public school classrooms to permanently display a version of the Ten Commandments. The court determined that the law likely violates both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment and preliminary enjoined its implementation in the school districts that were defendants in the case.
In his August 20, 2025 decision, District Court Judge Fred Biery ruled: “[T]here is insufficient evidence of a broad tradition in place at the time of the Founding, and within the history of public education, to justify” the Texas law. He also found that the law “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions.” He further explained that “the displays are likely to pressure the child-Plaintiffs into religious observance, meditation on, veneration, and adoption of the State’s favored religious scripture, and into suppressing expression of their own religious or nonreligious backgrounds and beliefs while at school.”
The lawsuit was filed on July 2, 2025 on behalf of a group of multifaith Texas families with children in public schools and alleged that the displays would pressure students into religious observance.
The Simpson Thacher team included Jonathan Youngwood, Janet Gochman, Noah Gimbel, Nicholas Prendergast, Jordan Krieger, Noah Manthorne Huffman, Avia Gridi, Kristen Crow and Victoria Wang.
The case has been covered by publications including ABC News, AP, Axios, CBS News, CNN, Forbes, The Guardian, The Hill, NBC News, Newsweek, The New York Times, Politico, USA Today and many more.