Judge blocks Louisiana law requiring schools to display Ten Commandments | Louisiana

A new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in every public classroom by Jan. 1 was temporarily blocked after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.

The judge said the law was “primarily unconstitutional” – and the plaintiffs would likely win their case by claiming the law violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the government from establishing a religion and the law guaranteed freedom of religion.

The ruling represents a victory for the law’s opponents, who argue that it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. They also argue that displaying the Ten Commandments in poster size would isolate students, especially those who are not Christians.

Supporters say the measure is not only religious in nature but also has historical significance to the foundations of U.S. law.

U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles in Baton Rouge issued the order as part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by a group of parents of Louisiana public school children. DeGravelles was appointed to the bench during Barack Obama’s presidency.

Any appeals in the case would be heard by the U.S. Fifth Circuit, widely considered perhaps the most conservative court in the country.

The Louisiana law passed by deGravelles was passed by a Republican-dominated legislature in a reliably conservative state anchored in the Bible Belt.

The law, touted by both Republicans and Donald Trump as he successfully sought a second presidency, is one of conservatives’ latest push to integrate religion into education. The push includes legislation in Florida allowing school districts to use volunteer counselors to counsel students and Oklahoma’s top education official ordering public schools to include the Bible in instruction.

In recent years, similar bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in classrooms have been proposed in other states, including Texas, Oklahoma and Utah. However, because of the threat of legal disputes over the constitutionality of such measures, none of them came into force.

In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a similar law in Kentucky was unconstitutional and violated the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause, which states that Congress “shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.” The Supreme Court found that the law had no secular purpose but rather served a clearly religious purpose.

Louisiana legislation, which applies to all public K-12 schools and state-funded university classrooms, requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed on a poster or framed document measuring at least 11 x 14 inches (28 x 36 cm), with the text taking center stage and “printed in large, easy-to-read font.”

Each poster must be accompanied by a four-paragraph “Context Statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “have been an important part of American public education for nearly three centuries.”

Tens of thousands of posters would probably be needed to comply with the new law. Advocates say schools are not required to spend public money on the posters, but instead can purchase them through donations or have groups and organizations donate the actual posters.

Notably, Louisiana’s far-right Governor Jeff Landry suggested in August that parents should tell their children not to “look at the Ten Commandments” if they were offended by their display in the state’s classrooms.

The Associated Press contributed reporting