Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is appealing a court ruling that blocked some of the state’s school districts from displaying the Ten Commandments, and is telling schools to post the religious commands despite the judge’s order.

“I’m appealing a flawed injunction and continuing to order that the Ten Commandments be displayed in schools,” Mr. Paxton posted on X on Thursday. “There is no legal reason to stop TX from honoring a core ethical foundation of our law, especially not a bogus claim about the ’separation of church and state.’”

In a press release, Mr. Paxton said he is asking the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the lower court’s ruling — rather than just a three-judge panel.

A federal judge in Texas blocked school districts last month from enforcing S.B. 10, the state law which requires a poster of the Ten Commandments be hung in every public school classroom.

U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Texas Fred Biery said the requirement could burden children and interfere with parents’ rights to raise their children according to certain religious beliefs.

The Biden appointee also said the Texas law “impermissibly takes sides on theological questions and officially favors Christian denominations over others” and is “not neutral with respect to religion.”

The American Civil Liberties Union had challenged the requirement, representing a group of parents from mixed or no faith backgrounds.

Louisiana also has lost in the courts, with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that the law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted ran afoul of the Constitution.

The state laws are similar and Mr. Paxton is urging the 5th Circuit to take up the Texas case alongside Louisiana’s.

Liz Murrill, Louisiana’s attorney general, has said her state will keep up the legal battle, even all the way to the Supreme Court.

Advocates against the Ten Commandments posters note that roughly 40 years ago, in Stone v. Graham, the justices ruled it was unlawful for Kentucky to order classrooms to display the Ten Commandments in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which forbids the government from excessive entanglement with religion.

In Texas’ court filing, the state argues that the legal test used in Stone v. Graham — the Lemon test where courts weighed whether a law violated the Establishment Clause — has been overruled. The Establishment Clause forbids the government from endorsing any one religion.

The states have said they’re not trying to promote religion but rather celebrate the centrality of the Ten Commandments themselves as history and as a critical source of legal authority in the American experiment.

• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.