After a federal court struck down a 2025 state law requiring the posting of the Ten Commandments in every Arkansas K-12 and college classroom, members of the Pine Bluff Faith Community Coalition Ministerial Alliance defend their distribution and education of the scriptures to local school children.
“I found it to be, kind of, an active, I guess, decision from the judge,” said the Rev. Jesse Turner, the coalition’s leader. “Of course, I believe that decision will be voided in that the work we have done in these schools is going to be successful. … We just believe that decision will be voided and we’ll continue with our work.”
The coalition, most of whom act as a subgroup called Pastors on Patrol in local schools, has been active since last summer distributing and posting the Ten Commandments, the scriptures listed in Exodus 20:3-17. Turner and other members of the coalition gathered in his downtown office Tuesday to talk about the impact of the federal injunction.
“We did it because we defend the faith,” Turner said. “In our faith, we defend that, and the Ten Commandments is something that is a guide. It’s something that is needed, but we don’t go into the classroom. The Ministerial Alliance does not go into a classroom trying to impose those Ten Commandments. That’s not our job. We don’t push religion in the schools. That poster is just a symbol of the things that will help people understand themselves. We just believe the Ten Commandments should stand. It’s not infringing on anyone’s rights.”
While talking with reporters in his office, Turner held a booklet that referred to the First Amendment of the Constitution, but he also referred to the historical significance of Act 573, recalling his school days and reflecting on being taught Biblical verses.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“Today, it becomes an issue,” Turner said. “So, I say if a Muslim or a Satanist wants to put up their information in a classroom, I say go ahead but do it the right way. And the right way is to, just like they did the Ten Commandments, go to your senator or representative, have them sponsor that, and carry that legislation through the Arkansas statehouse in the Senate. If the majority of those representatives vote for it to be put up there, I have no problem. We have no problem with that.”
Sen. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, sponsored Act 573. Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed it into law last April.
“I’m excited about what (legislators) did,” Turner said. “We are all in support of what they did because it’s the right thing, and it’s something that needs to happen.”
Fellow Pastor on Patrol Yolanda Pitts said she was raised on Biblical principles and the Ten Commandments are important to be displayed in schools where her grandchildren and great-grandchildren attend.
“For it to be there on the walls, they have an opportunity to read it if they so choose to,” Pitts said. “Just like Pastor Turner said, we’re not forcing religion on anyone. It’s a free will. With the staff and faculty and students being happy about the Ten Commandments, we are just elated about that. We are excited.”
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville struck down Act 573 by permanently enjoining six Arkansas school districts — Bentonville, Conway, Fayetteville, Lakeside (Garland County), Siloam Springs, Springdale — from posting a framed 16-inch-by-20-inch poster of the Ten Commandments in each K-12 classroom. The districts were sued by 13 parents in those districts who argued the mandated posting of these posters violated the plaintiffs’ establishment and free exercise rights under the First Amendment.
Four of the districts were enjoined in an Aug. 4, 2025, ruling that did not prevent others statewide. Parents from the Conway and Lakeside school districts joined the lawsuit in August and October, respectively.
Pastors on Patrol began installing the posters, along with an 11-inch-by-14-inch display of the national motto “In God We Trust” as Act 573 also required, in each Jefferson County classroom last August.
Pastors on Patrol, who help monitor hallways and encourage students in public schools, proceeded to install the posters. Turner announced last week the pastors had completed posting them.
The plaintiffs contended the “plain text of Act 573 does not suggest that other documents be posted alongside the Ten Commandments for educational reasons or mitigating context. That is because the Legislature intends the posters to hang in all classrooms without regard to the subject matter taught in class, the age of the students, or any other material consideration. Nothing could possibly justify hanging the Ten Commandments — with or without historical context — in a calculus, chemistry, French or woodworking class, to name a few. And the words ‘curriculum,’ ‘school board,’ ‘teacher,’ or ‘educate’ don’t appear anywhere in Act 573.”
Brooks wrote in his conclusion: “The downside of a constitutional democracy is that its citizens must contend with the ‘occasional tyrannies of governing majorities.’
“When the power, prestige and financial support of government is placed behind a particular religious belief, the indirect coercive pressure upon religious minorities to conform to the prevailing officially approved religion is plain. … It appears that with the passage of Act 573, the State may have lost sight of the fact that ‘a union of government and religion tends to destroy government and to degrade religion.'”
A spokesman for state Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette the opinion was under review and will be appealed. Griffin was listed as an intervenor in the suit.
Following Monday night’s school board meeting, when news of the permanent injunction surfaced, Pine Bluff School District Superintendent Jennifer Barbaree was asked about court ruling.
“We are going to comply with whatever laws we’re required to comply with,” Barbaree said, adding she had just learned of the injunction when asked. “Of course, we’ll work with the Ministerial Alliance and Rev. Jesse Turner in any way we need to, to support this and follow the law as well.”
Superintendents Keith McGee of the Watson Chapel School District and Gary Williams of the White Hall School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.