A Ten Commandments sculpture is on display in front of city hall June 27, 2001 in Grand Junction, Colorado.(Michael Smith/Getty Images)
A Louisiana law that will require schools to place displays of the Ten Commandments in every classroom is “coercive” and “unconstitutional,” according to the federal judge who issued an order Tuesday that stops the law taking effect Jan. 1.
Nine families have sued the state, arguing the new law amounts to the state endorsing a religion and conflicts with the First Amendment.
Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill, who is defending the law that GOP Gov. Jeff Landry signed, maintains the Ten Commandments have historic standing as a foundational document for U.S. law.
“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal,” Murrill said in a statement sent through her spokesman.
The new law requires 11-by-14-inch displays along with an accompanying “context statement” that explains the commandments’ role in education. It applies to any school that accepts state money, including colleges and universities. The schools are not compelled to spend money on the posters though they can accept donated materials.
U.S. District Judge John deGravelles, a federal court appointee of President Barack Obama to Louisiana’s Middle District Court in Baton Rouge, said in his 177-page opinion that the plaintiffs would more than likely prevail in their case. He wrote that the law amounts to coercion because families must ensure their minor children attend school.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is among the organizations representing the plaintiffs, called the ruling “a victory for religious freedom.” The plaintiffs include non-Christian and nonreligious families.
“This ruling will ensure that Louisiana families – not politicians or public school officials – get to decide if, when and how their children engage with religion,” said Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, another group representing the plaintiffs. “It should send a strong message to Christian Nationalists across the country that they cannot impose their beliefs on our nation’s public school children. Not on our watch.”
Defendants in the case include Louisiana K-12 Superintendent Cade Brumley, members of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the school boards from East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Tammany and Vernon parishes.
The plaintiffs argue Louisiana’s law violates the long-standing precedent from Stone v. Graham, a 1980 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned a similar statute in Kentucky.
Landry welcomed a legal challenge of the new law before he signed it, predicting the Supreme Court would uphold the measure. He and other conservatives have been buoyed by a 2022 ruling from justices in favor of a high school football coach in Washington state who was fired after praying at midfield after games and allowing students to join him. After the 6-3 decision in Bremerton v. Kennedy, the coach was rehired at the school.
“I cannot wait to be sued,” the governor said at a June fundraiser for Republicans in Tennessee.
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