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📰 Above the fold
Utah Sen. Mike Lee joined with nearly 50 other members of Congress to argue in favor of a Texas law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, arguing in a court filing that individuals should not be allowed to challenge government decisions merely because they disagree with them.
The brief argues that parents who object to the displays lack standing to sue unless they can show a concrete injury, not just disagreement or discomfort. The fight over standing matters: narrowing who can sue would make it harder to bring Establishment Clause challenges to religious messages in public schools in Texas and beyond.
After Texas lawmakers passed Senate Bill 10 earlier this year, a group of families sued in federal court, arguing the law violates the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and their right to direct their children’s religious education.
In August, a federal district court issued a preliminary injunction to block the law from going into effect, ruling that the law was unconstitutional religious coercion of the students and that it trampled on the parents’ rights to direct their children’s religious education.
“[T]he 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 background and beliefs while at school,” Judge Fred Biery, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, wrote.
On Thursday, Lee signed onto an amicus brief led by Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy contending that parents cannot sue as mere “offended observers” simply because a classroom display makes them uncomfortable.
"Plaintiffs have never even come into contact with the posters, as they were never posted in their school before the district court enjoined the Defendants, so Plaintiffs cannot say they are being 'pressured' or coerced now,” the brief states.
The lawmakers say allowing offended observer suits violates Article III of the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of a concrete injury. They warn that loosening standing would pull courts toward policy disputes that belong to legislatures.
"Courts would start to look more like legislatures, responding to social pressures rather than remedying concrete harms,” the brief says.
As evidence that religious references coexist with government functions, the brief catalogs religious imagery throughout the Capitol and Supreme Court.
"[We] pass under the words 'In God We Trust' and 'Annuit Coeptis' (God Favors Our Undertakings) when entering the Senate Chamber,” it notes. "We may seek divine wisdom as we perform our duty of representing the American people in the Capitol Prayer Room, which also contains the inscription, 'Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust,' from Psalm 16:1."
The brief also cites depictions of Moses in Supreme Court friezes to argue that religious references in public spaces are part of the nation’s civic heritage, not coercion. Allowing this challenge to proceed, they say, would invite litigation against longstanding displays that incorporate religious words and images.
In 2024, Rep. Michael Petersen (R-North Logan) sponsored legislation requiring schools post a framed copy of the Ten Commandments in a “prominent location.” After pushback, the legislature passed a significantly watered down version that added the Ten Commandments and the Magna Carta to an optional list of historical documents that can be used in curricula.