A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Texas may require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public school classroom, finding the law constitutional. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-6 in favor of the law, overturning a lower court that had blocked it since 2024. The decision will likely end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling follows a similar law passed two years ago in Louisiana, the first state to require Ten Commandments displays in public schools. At the signing, Governor Jeff Landry declared: “If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses who got the commandments from G-d.” He added that he “can’t wait to be sued over it.”

Louisiana’s law requires a poster-sized display in every classroom from kindergarten through university, along with a statement describing the Ten Commandments as “a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries.”

Supporters frame the law as historical rather than religious, describing the commandments as “foundational documents of our state and national government,” with displays funded through private donations rather than taxpayer money.

State Representative Michael Bayham, who backed the bill, said that “our sense of right and wrong is based on the Ten Commandments,” adding that it “does not say you have to be this particular faith or that particular faith.”

Similar legislation has been introduced in Utah, Oklahoma, and other states, and Tuesday’s ruling is expected to give those efforts a significant boost.