A judge has stopped a recent law passed in Louisiana that would require all public schools to display the Ten Commandments in each of their classrooms.
The move comes after various groups filed suit against the state, arguing that the law violates the First Amendment. The law will not take effect until November 15, 2024, the court said. Verdict.
Both parties agreed that the Ten Commandments would not be displayed in any public school classroom and that the defendants – including the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education – and the schools would not publicly promote implementation of the law until November.
Lester Duhe, a spokesman for the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, clarified that the defendants “agreed not to take any public compliance action until then” because that would allow time for “briefing, oral arguments and a decision” before the January 2025 deadline when schools must follow the Ten Commandments.
The January claim remains valid until the outcome of the legal dispute.
A group of multifaith Louisiana families whose children attend public schools have filed a lawsuit against HB 71, which requires public schools from kindergarten through high school to display the Ten Commandments, a religious collection from the Old Testament, in every classroom on “a poster or framed document measuring 11″ by 14”.
The plaintiffs are nine families from Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and non-religious backgrounds. They claim that requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom is unconstitutional. “Permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom — thereby making them mandatory — places unconstitutional pressure on students to follow, worship and embrace the state’s preferred religious scripture,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit argues that the law “sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not profess the Ten Commandments – or more specifically, the specific version of the Ten Commandments that schools are required to post under HB 71 – do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing faith practices or beliefs that are inconsistent with the state’s religious preferences.”
On the other hand, supporters of the law claim that it is about America’s historic traditions, not religion. “There is no Christian religion being preached here. There is no religion being preached at all. There is a moral code being taught,” Republican Rep. Dodie Horton said during a hearing in April.
The measure requires that the Ten Commandments poster be no smaller than 11 inches by 14 inches. It must be “the central point of the poster” and written in “large, legible type.” The poster must also point out that the Commandments have been an “important part of the American public education system” for nearly three centuries.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry is a sturdy supporter of the recent law said that defending the measure in court is worth the price that lawyers have to pay to litigate it. In an interview, he claimed that “the benefits of what we are trying to do definitely outweigh the costs.”
The law is intended to overturn the 1971 case Lemon v. Kurtzman, in which the justices ruled that the government could not provide funding to non-secular schools without violating the Establishment Clause. In 1980, the Supreme Court considered Stone v. Graham, in which it ruled, based on the Lemon test, that a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments in schools was unconstitutional.
The Republican governor insisted that “this is one of those cases where the (Supreme) Court is wrong.”
Since this is a developing story, RedState will provide updates as they become available.
