AUSTIN — A law requiring Texas public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments is poised to take effect Sept. 1 after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill Saturday.

However, it is expected to face legal challenges.

Rocío Fierro-Pérez, political director of Texas Freedom Network, said the law ignores the separation of church and state by telling children “what kind of faith is acceptable.”

“No child should be told by the state that their beliefs are wrong, or that they don’t belong in their own school,” she said in a statement. “This is government overreach in its most dangerous form.”

Schools must conspicuously display a 16-by-20-inch poster or framed copy of the Ten Commandments in every classroom with text that can be read by anyone inside the room with average vision under the new law.

Texas’ attorney general must defend public schools in any lawsuits they face from the mandate, meaning taxpayers will foot the bill.

The ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Freedom From Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State have warned Abbott that they would file a lawsuit if he signed the legislation. In a joint statement late last month, they called the bill “blatantly unconstitutional.”

The civil liberties groups say the new law violates the 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stone vs. Graham. The court held then that Kentucky’s law requiring class displays of the Ten Commandments was unconstitutional and violated the establishment clause of the First Amendment — which prohibits the government from establishing a religion.

The organizations also noted a federal court blocked Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law from taking effect last year. That court ruled Louisiana’s law violated the Stone precedent and is “discriminatory and coercive.” That case is being appealed.

Supporters of the Ten Commandments law in Texas counter that the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in Kennedy vs. Bremerton School District made it possible for states to pass such laws. The court held that high school football coach Joseph Kennedy’s personal midfield prayer after games was protected by the free exercise and free speech clauses of the First Amendment.

The high court’s Kennedy opinion noted that the justices had “long ago abandoned” what’s known as the Lemon test, a three-pronged approach to determine whether something violated the establishment clause separating church and state.

Instead, the court said possible violations should be determined by “reference to historical practices and understandings.”

Matt Krause, an attorney with First Liberty Institute, expressed confidence that the incoming law will ultimately be upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Ten Commandments is unique in American history and culture in that it was ubiquitous,” he said in an interview, likening it to historic U.S. documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. “It squarely meets that history and tradition test more uniquely and more squarely than any other document, really, in American history.”

In Louisiana’s case, the federal court ruled it “remains bound to follow Stone until the Supreme Court overrules it.” Even without using Stone as the precedent, the court found that the law is still unconstitutional because it “fails to select historical documents generally and versions of the Decalogue specifically ‘without regard for belief,’” making it discriminatory on top of its mandate being coercive to students.

“Government officials have no business intruding on these deeply personal religious matters,” the civil liberties groups said in the joint statement last month. “We will not allow Texas lawmakers to divide communities along religious lines and attempt to turn public schools into Sunday schools.”

The Ten Commandments law is among more than 300 policies Abbott signed Saturday. Sunday is the last day the governor can sign or veto bills passed by the Legislature this session.

Abbott also signed bills into law that protect public school employees’ right to engage in religious speech or prayer while on duty and require trustees to vote whether schools in their district must allow a period for praying and reading religious texts.

“Today, I signed critical legislation passed in the 89th Regular Legislative Session that protects the safety of Texans and safeguards the individual freedoms that our great state was founded on,” Abbott said in a statement. “Working with the Texas Legislature, we will keep Texas the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”