A coalition of parents has won a legal battle in federal court to block a state law that would require the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms by next year.
U.S. District Judge John DeGravels on Tuesday issued an order granting the plaintiffs a preliminary injunction, which means the state can move forward with the law and enact rules as early as Friday while the lawsuit progresses. This means that the plan cannot be started.
The judge called the law “unconstitutional on its face,” prohibited Louisiana from enforcing the law “in all applications,” and banned Ten Commandments posters from all K-12 public schools and colleges. It was prohibited to introduce regulations requiring the posting of such information.
Following his order, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said she would “immediately appeal.”
Meanwhile, after hearing debate over the bill on Oct. 21, DeGravels ordered his office to “notify all schools that the law has been found to be unconstitutional.”
“Each of Plaintiff’s minor children is ‘in every practical sense’ a ‘captive audience’ under Louisiana’s mandatory attendance regulations, and is prohibited from participating in religious exercises such as reading and thinking about specific Ten Commandments. “One was posted in every classroom for the entire school year, regardless of student age or course subject matter,” the judge wrote.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs praised the judge’s decision.
Heather Weaver, lead attorney for the ACLU’s Religion and Belief Freedom Program, said, “This ruling is an important decision for Louisiana lawmakers who want to use public schools to convert children to their preferred version of Christianity.” This should serve as a reality check for them.” statement. “Public schools are not Sunday schools, and today’s decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms continue to be spaces where all students feel welcome, regardless of their faith.”
The law stated schools had until January 1 to comply.
“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision,” Murrill said in a statement.
Gov. Jeff Landry signed the Republican-backed bill in June as part of his conservative agenda to reshape Louisiana’s cultural landscape, from abortion rights to criminal justice to education. .
The move prompted a coalition of Jews, Christians, Unitarians, and nondenominational parents to sue the state in federal court. They argued that the law “substantially impedes and burdens” children’s First Amendment right to be raised according to their desired religious tenets.
The lawsuit was supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, the Religious Freedom Foundation, and Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP.
The Rev. Darcy Rourke, a plaintiff in the case along with her husband Adrian Van Young, said in a statement that she was “relieved” by the judge’s order, adding: Public schools and their religious education come from within our homes and our faith communities, not from government authorities. ”
Stephen Green, a professor of law, history, and religious studies at Willamette University in Oregon, testified against the law in a federal court hearing, arguing that the Ten Commandments are not central to the U.S. government and its creation, and that if anything, , the founding fathers believed in the separation of church and state.
At a press conference after the hearing, Murrill dismissed Greene’s testimony, saying it was irrelevant whether the person posting the post itself violated the First Amendment.
“We believe this law is constitutional. We have explained the constitutionality of this law in many ways. We have prepared a number of posters in our brief, We’ve shown that.” “Again, you don’t have to like the poster. What matters is whether you can make a constitutionally compliant poster.”
In August, Murrill and Landry shared an example of how to design and display Ten Commandments posters in classrooms for educational purposes. The exhibit included historical background on the commandments, which the state believes makes its laws constitutional.
One poster compared Moses to Martin Luther King Jr., and another cited the song “The Ten Commandments” from the musical “Hamilton.”
Murrill said there was no need to spend public funds to print the posters and that they could be supplied by private donations, but questions remained about what would happen to educators who refused to comply with the law.
The state expects the case could go to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the issue was last heard in 1980, when the justices voted 5-4 for Kentucky. The court ruled that displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools is unconstitutional.
In his decision, DeGravels acknowledged Supreme Court precedent on the question of whether it is constitutional to display religious literature in public schools, as required by Louisiana law.
“The question is not whether you can put a Biblical law on a poster. The question is whether, as a matter of law, there is a constitutional way to display the Ten Commandments in accordance with the minimum requirements of the law,” he said. Ta. I wrote. “Essentially, the court found that it did not exist.”
Another state, Oklahoma, is facing a similar lawsuit that would require public schools to include the Bible in their fifth- through 12th-grade lesson plans and to keep a Bible in every classroom.
Asked in August what he would say to parents worried about the Ten Commandments in public schools, Landry said, “Tell your kids not to look at them.”
