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Key Takeaways
- The University of Arkansas has begun displaying framed posters of the Ten Commandments on campus to comply with a new state law, Act 573, that mandates such displays in public schools.
- Student reactions are mixed, with some finding the displays unnecessary and others viewing them as positive moral reminders; additional religious statements have been posted alongside the Ten Commandments by some students.
- The law has faced opposition from the university’s faculty senate and organizations like the ACLU, which argues it contravenes the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, leading to ongoing legal challenges.
Framed posters of the Ten Commandments began to adorn classroom walls and hallways across the University of Arkansas this week as campus leaders work to comply with a new state law.
The law, passed earlier this year, requires that copies of the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools.
“From the foundation of our country the Ten Commandments has been a part of our history and has been posted throughout public spaces. It has only been in the last several decades that some of those displays have been taken down,” Arkansas state Sen. Jim Dotson, who sponsored the law, told The College Fix in an email this week.
“Due to recent Supreme Court decisions, displays like the Ten Commandments, that are part of the history and traditions of our country, are now welcome again,” he said.
Reaction among University of Arkansas, Fayetteville students was mixed as the posters began appearing across campus this week. Some students said they don’t think the displays are appropriate because religion is a choice, while others said the laws are a good reminder of how best to live.
Students have also responded to the posters by taping printed statements of faith from other religions around the Ten Commandment posters. Some of these include the Five Pillars of Islam, Monastic Vows, the Five Constant Virtues, and Yamas and Niyamas.
John Thomas, a university spokesman, told The College Fix the framed posters were donated, and their installation in buildings and classrooms is required under Act 573 of 2025.
When asked if the university has received any feedback from students or faculty, Thomas said: “While we respect that there are differing opinions on Act 573, the practice of the University of Arkansas is to comply with the law.”
The donation of 500 framed Ten Commandment posters came from the nonprofit Counteract USA. Its founder and CEO Abigail DeJarnatt told The Fix the group is grateful for the opportunity.
“This is Arkansas law, and any opportunity we get to remind University of Arkansas students that there is right and wrong and meaning and purpose in the world—that there’s a God who sees them, knows them, and loves them—we’re going to take it,” she said.
The law is broadly a result of a shift in how the Supreme Court interprets the Establishment Clause. Lemon v. Kurtzman in 1971 established the practice of applying the “Lemon Test” as the standard test used to determine the government’s actions in religious cases.
In the recent Kennedy v. Bremerton School District 2022 Supreme Court case, the Lemon test was rejected and replaced with analyzing cases involving religion through the lens of history and tradition.
Act 573 stipulates that the “copies or posters authorized under this section shall either be donated or purchased solely with funds made available through voluntary contributions to the local school boards, local building governing entity, or the Building Authority Division.”
The university is currently working to hang the remainder of the donated posters.
In May, the university’s faculty senate approved a resolution opposing the law, arguing it violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
A lawsuit against the law filed by the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State is winding its way through the courts.
MORE: Federal appeals court upholds Arkansas ban on Critical Race Theory in the classroom
