Federal judge blocks Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law in public schools

A coalition of parents trying to block a state law that would require the Ten Commandments to be posted in public school classrooms by next year has won a legal battle in federal court.

U.S. District Judge John deGravelles issued an order Tuesday granting the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction, meaning the state cannot begin its plan to promote and establish rules for the law as early as Friday the legal dispute continues.

The judge wrote that the law was “primarily unconstitutional” and “unconstitutional in every respect,” preventing Louisiana from enforcing it and adopting rules requiring all K-12 public schools and colleges to display posters of the Ten to issue bids.

His order prompted Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill to say she would “immediately appeal.”

Meanwhile, deGravelles, who heard arguments over the law on Oct. 21, directed her office to “notify all schools that the law has been found unconstitutional.”

“Each of plaintiffs’ minor children is, for all practical purposes, forced by Louisiana’s attendance requirement to be a ‘captive audience’ and to participate in a religious exercise: reading and contemplating a particular version of the Ten Commandments, “One is in appropriate to each individual classroom for the entire school year, regardless of the age of the student or the topic of the course,” the judge wrote.

Lawyers representing the plaintiffs welcomed the judge’s decision.

“This ruling should serve as a reality check for Louisiana lawmakers who want to use public schools to convert children to their preferred brand of Christianity,” Heather Weaver, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Religious and Belief Freedom Program, said in a statement . “Public schools are not Sunday schools, and today’s decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcome.”

The law required schools to comply with the regulations by January 1st.

“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision,” Murrill said in a statement.

Gov. Jeff Landry signed the Republican Party-backed law in June, part of his conservative agenda that has transformed Louisiana’s cultural landscape, from abortion rights to criminal justice to education.

The move prompted a coalition of parents — Jews, Christians, Unitarians and the nonreligious — to sue the state in federal court. They argued that the law “significantly restricts and burdens” their First Amendment right to raise their children in the religious doctrine they choose.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP supported the lawsuit.

The Rev. Darcy Roake, who is 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: “We expect our children to receive their secular education . “public schools and their religious instruction at home and within our faith communities, not by government officials.”

Steven Green, a professor of law, history and religious studies at Willamette University in Oregon, testified against the law during the federal court hearing, arguing that the Ten Commandments were not at the core of the U.S. government and its founding, if at all , The Founding Fathers believed in a separation of church and state.

At a news conference after the hearing, Murrill dismissed Green’s testimony as irrelevant to the question of whether the posters themselves violated the First Amendment.

“This law is, in my opinion, constitutional, and we have shown in many ways that the law is constitutional. We showed that in our briefs by creating a series of posters,” Murrill told reporters. “Again, you don’t have to like the posters. The point is that you can make posters that comply with the Constitution.”

In August, Murrill and Landry presented examples of how posters of the Ten Commandments could be designed and hung in classrooms for educational purposes. The representations provided historical context for the commandments that the state believes make its law constitutional.

One poster compared Moses and Martin Luther King Jr., while another played the song “Ten Duel Commandments” from the musical “Hamilton.”