NDLS Contests Ten Commandments in Texas Schools

Notre Dame Law School’s Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in Nathan v. Alamo Heights Independent School District, a case disputing a Texas law which requires every K-12 public school classroom to display a poster of the Ten Commandments.

Filed on September 28, 2026, the brief sides with 16 Texas families who claim the law—Texas Senate Bill 10—is a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. A federal trial court issued a preliminary injunction against the law, but in April 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the injunction, upholding Senate Bill 10. On August 17, the families filed a petition for writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to deliver a final ruling.

In an interview with the Rover, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Religious Liberty Clinic, and leader in the brief John Meiser, stated, “A misunderstanding that you see a lot in some of the coverage about this case is—and often in these cases about religious freedom or First Amendment rights—they are presented as something like … there’s one side that’s pro-religion, if there’s something going on that’s otherwise supporting or promoting religion, there’s a side that recognizes the Constitution protects that, and there’s a side that is anti-religion. That is not what this case is about.”