A federal judge on Wednesday converted a temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring Ten Commandments displays in Arkansas public schools.
The order from U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks now applies to the Conway School District, which was added as a defendant in the case last month.
The original lawsuit, filed in June by seven families of religious and nonreligious backgrounds, targeted four Northwest Arkansas school districts Bentonville, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs and Springdale. The state became a defendant after the Arkansas attorney general’s office intervened. Attorneys later added two families from Conway, where Ten Commandments posters had been hung, to the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs argue their religious freedom rights are being violated under Act 573 of 2025, which requires that “a durable poster or framed copy of a historical representation of the Ten Commandments” be “prominently” displayed in public school classrooms and libraries, colleges and other publicly funded buildings.
Brooks initially issued a preliminary injunction Aug. 4 to block the law in the four original districts. He granted a temporary restraining order against Conway schools Aug. 28, ordering all posters removed by the following day. Wednesday’s ruling converted that temporary order into a preliminary injunction.
In his three-page order, Brooks denied the state’s request to reconsider the prior injunction, saying it offered “neither new facts nor new law” to support the move. He also rejected a request to narrow the injunction to classrooms currently occupied by child plaintiffs, calling it “infeasible, unworkable, and likely to cause further injury” to the families’ religious rights.
The injunction will remain in place until the case is decided on its merits.
This story was reworked from reporting by the Arkansas Advocate.
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