BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) – Louisiana’s 2020 Teacher of the Year has filed a lawsuit against the state challenging a modern law that requires the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public school classroom by Jan. 1.
It is the second lawsuit against the law, which came into force in June. The first lawsuit was filed shortly after the law was passed in Baton Rouge. The judge in the case said he would try to rule on a request to block the law by Nov. 15.
The second suit attracted less attention. It was filed Sept. 23 in New Orleans by Christopher Dier, a history teacher at Ben Franklin High School in New Orleans. Dier told the Associated Press in an interview last summer that he had no intention of displaying the Ten Commandments in his classroom.
U.S. District Judge Greg Guidry was scheduled to meet by phone with attorneys in the case Wednesday to work out a schedule, including a possible trial date for Dier’s lawsuit. Defendants in the lawsuit include Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who signed the bill, Republican Attorney General Liz Murrill, Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley and members of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Dier’s lawsuit states that the law referenced in HB71 targets children with a religious message and “recruits” teachers to display it, in violation of the letter of the First Amendment. which prohibits the government from establishing religion and guarantees freedom of religion. Echoing other critics of the law, it says that the version of the Ten Commandments prescribed in the law is favored by Protestant denominations and that a forced display of the Ten Commandments could result in students who are not Christians being isolated.
“I don’t believe in doing anything that is unconstitutional and harmful to students,” Dier told the AP in June.
State officials argue HB71 is not exclusively religious in nature and that the Ten Commandments have historical significance in the foundation of U.S. law. They have filed a motion to dismiss Dier’s lawsuit.
A immense part of their argument is that Dier has not yet suffered any damages that he could sue for.
“He is only objecting to an unspecified future HB 71 bill that he believes may violate his rights at an unspecified time. But he doesn’t know — and the defendants don’t know — how his (or any other) school will select its HB 71 displays, what size they will be, where they will be placed, what context will be included, and so on,” it says in the motion to dismiss.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge is reviewing motions filed Monday in the earlier lawsuit filed by several parents of Louisiana schoolchildren. The requests also include blocking enforcement of the law.
The law applies to all K-12 public school classrooms and state-funded universities. It requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed on a poster or framed document measuring at least 11 by 14 inches (28 by 36 centimeters), with the text as the focal point and “printed in a large, easy-to-read font.” Each poster must be accompanied by a four-paragraph context statement.
