A federal judge has temporarily blocked a Louisiana law requiring statewide public schools. to show the ten commandments U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles of Baton Rouge, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, ruled Tuesday that the law violates the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment.
The ruling found the Louisiana law “unconstitutional on its face and in all its applications.”
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and the defendants in the case were barred from enforcing the order and required public schools to be notified of any changes. Tuesday’s decision comes from Louisiana, which is represented by legal teams from the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It came with a preliminary injunction issued in a lawsuit filed by parents of public school students.
Defendants include Louisiana Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and members of the State Board of Education and other local school boards, all represented by the Attorney General.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has made efforts to integrate elements of his Christian faith into secular life a central part of his political platform, signing the Ten Commandments bill into law last June. Dubbed HB 71 in the ongoing lawsuit, it would order all public K-12 classrooms and state-funded colleges in Louisiana to display poster-sized prints of the commandments. Denominations, including Christian churches — will change to a “larger, easier-to-read font” starting next year.
Supporters of the law argued it would restore former relics of “state and national history, culture and traditions” in Louisiana’s public education spaces and insisted the bill was not solely rooted in religion. But opponents of the bill have questioned its constitutionality.
In its original complaint challenging the Ten Commandments law, the ACLU argued that it would constitute a violation of church and state and would effectively discriminate against students, especially those who are not Christian. Their lawsuit seeks a court order declaring that HB 71 violated constitutional religious rights enshrined in the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from “establishing” religion or favoring one religion over another and protects the religious freedom of individual citizens. I saved it.
“The state’s primary interest in passing HB 71 was to impose religious beliefs on public school children, regardless of the harm they cause to students and their families,” read the original complaint. “During debate on the bill, Rep. Dodie Horton, the law’s primary sponsor and author, said, ‘We seek to display God’s law in the classroom so children can see what God says is right and what He says is wrong. “I will do it,” he declared.
The ACLU said in a statement that its lawsuit represents a class of plaintiffs who are “Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and non-religious.” The statement added that both felt the “newly enacted statute violates long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedent along with the U.S. Constitution.”
This is a developing story that will be updated with more information.
