Families challenging Arkansas’ new law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public school classrooms asked a federal court Friday to expand the lawsuit to include the Conway School District, where posters have already gone up.
Act 573 of 2025 mandates that a “durable poster or framed copy of a historical representation of the Ten Commandments” be placed in taxpayer-funded buildings, including K-12 classrooms, libraries and universities. U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks temporarily blocked the law on Aug. 4, one day before it was set to take effect, siding with seven multifaith families from northwest Arkansas who said the requirement violated their First Amendment rights.
On Monday, the plaintiffs filed a motion to add the Conway district as a defendant, along with two more families as plaintiffs. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas said Conway has ignored the judge’s injunction by posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms, calling the move a “chilling disregard for the law.”
“Conway School District nevertheless pressed forward infringing the constitutional rights of students and parents,” ACLU of Arkansas Legal Director John Williams said in a statement.
The proposed new plaintiffs include Julee Jaeger, a nonreligious parent, and Kyle and April Berry, who are raising their children as Christians but object to the state’s mandated version of the Ten Commandments. In an email cited in the complaint, Jaeger asked the Conway School Board to remove the posters, to which board member Trip Leach replied, “To answer your question, No I do not think I will.”
Attorney General Tim Griffin urged the court to deny the request, saying the plaintiffs “waited too long” to add new parties and that the court lacks jurisdiction.
Brooks, in his 35-page injunction, wrote that Act 573 likely violates both the Establishment Clause, which bars government endorsement of religion, and the Free Exercise Clause, which protects individual religious practice. He also suggested Arkansas’ law is part of “a coordinated strategy among several states to inject Christian religious doctrine into public-school classrooms.”
Supporters of Act 573, including Republican lawmakers and conservative activists, argue the law is constitutional under historical precedent. They point to a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed religious monuments if tied to longstanding tradition.
The ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and New York-based Simpson Thacher Bartlett are representing the plaintiffs.
If the judge grants the motion, the Conway families will join Jewish, Unitarian Universalist, Humanist, atheist and nonreligious plaintiffs already in the case.
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