Preliminary injunction issued against Conway School District in Ten Commandments lawsuit

The Ten Commandments were on display in a classroom in the Conway School District in August 2025 in adherence to a state law requiring the religious display in taxpayer-funded public buildings, including school classrooms. (Screenshot from court documents)

By Ainsley Platt, Arkansas Advocate

A federal judge converted a temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction Wednesday in a case challenging the constitutionality of a new state law requiring Ten Commandments displays in Arkansas public schools.

The order from U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks applies to the Conway School District, which was added as a defendant in the case last month.

Seven families with religious and nonreligious backgrounds filed the original lawsuit in June against the four Northwest Arkansas schools their children attend — Bentonville, Fayetteville, Siloam Springs and Springdale. The state also became a defendant in the case after the Arkansas attorney general’s office intervened.

The plaintiffs argue their religious freedom rights are being infringed by 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, public institutions of higher education, and public buildings and facilities maintained by taxpayer funds.

Brooks issued a preliminary injunction on Aug. 4 to block the law, which took effect Aug. 5, from being enforced in those four districts. Attorneys for the plaintiffs were later allowed to add two families from the Conway School District, where Ten Commandments posters had been hung, as plaintiffs in the case.

The Conway School District was also added as a defendant in the lawsuit. Brooks granted a temporary restraining order against the Central Arkansas district Aug. 28 and ordered all posters be removed from its schools by 5 p.m. the following day. Brooks converted the temporary restraining order to a preliminary injunction Wednesday.

A temporary restraining order is a temporary injunction that may be issued immediately, without informing all parties and without holding a hearing. It’s intended to last until a court holds a hearing on whether to grant a preliminary injunction, according to Cornell Law School.

In Wednesday’s three-page order, Brooks denied a request from the state for the court to reconsider its prior issuance of the preliminary injunction because “the State offers neither new facts nor new law to support its request for reconsideration.”

The state also renewed its request to narrow the preliminary injunction to the specific classrooms currently occupied by child plaintiffs in Conway, according to court filings.

“The court rejects this request for a ‘bubble injunction’ as infeasible, unworkable, and likely to cause further injury to Conway Plaintiffs’ religious rights,” Brooks wrote.

The converted preliminary injunction will remain effective “until this matter is decided on the merits,” according to Wednesday’s order.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.