Louisiana’s 2024 law requiring displays of the Ten Commandments in all public school classrooms is an unconstitutional attempt to impose religious beliefs on children and should not be enforced, a federal appeals court decided last week.
In a June 20 decision, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Louisiana’s House Bill 71 violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, affirming a previous federal district court ruling that prevents state officials and school boards from enforcing the measure.
The plaintiffs in the case, Rev. Roake v. Brumley, are nine Louisiana families with children in public schools who represent many different faiths. They argued that the mandatory displays would cause “irreparable” damage to their First Amendment rights and that the state-approved version of the Ten Commandments comes from a Protestant tradition.
State officials had argued that the new law, which was supposed to take effect on Jan. 1, was constitutional because it required the Ten Commandments to be displayed in historical context with other documents associated with the founding of the nation, such as the Mayflower Compact and Declaration of Independence.
The state Attorney General’s Office also argued that the plaintiffs’ arguments lacked legal standing, that the First Amendment claims lacked merit and that defendant members of the Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) were entitled to sovereign immunity. The appeals court rejected those positions.
“We strongly disagree with the Fifth Circuit’s affirmance of an injunction preventing five Louisiana parishes from implementing HB 71,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement emailed to the Louisiana Record. “We will immediately seek relief from the full Fifth Circuit and, if necessary, the United States Supreme Court.”
The Fifth Circuit judges held that the Louisiana measure was unconstitutional based on a reading of the 1980 U.S. Supreme Court decision Stone v. Graham. That decision found that a similar Kentucky statute failed to integrate the Ten Commandments into the state’s educational curriculum.
“Under the statute’s minimum requirements, the posters must be indiscriminately displayed in every public school classroom in Louisiana regardless of class subject-matter,” the appeals court said, adding that the result would be harmful to the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.
The plaintiffs were represented by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the ACLU of Louisiana and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
“This is a resounding victory for the separation of church and state and public education,” Heather L. Weaver, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said in a prepared statement. “… The Fifth Circuit has held Louisiana accountable to a core constitutional promise: Public schools are not Sunday schools, and they must welcome all students, regardless of faith.”
The court also affirmed that the legislative history of HB 71 reflected a move to provide a religious counterbalance to families trending away from regular church attendance and to affirm that the Ten Commandments was part of “God’s law.” Such underlying sentiments about the purpose of the law indicated a “religious viewpoint” and an impermissible state objective, according to the court.
The law required displays or posters of the Ten Commandments that are at least 11 by 14 inches, with the Commandments printed in a “large, easily readable font.”
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Author: Dillon B
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