Louisiana Ten Commandments in School Order Blocked by Court (2)

Louisiana is barred from requiring that public schools display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a federal judge has ruled.

US District Judge John W. deGravelles on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the legislative mandate, finding the measure facially unconstitutional and unconstitutional in all applications. The state will be required to provide notice to all Louisiana schools saying the law is unconstitutional, the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana judge said.

“The Act’s mandatory practice is coercive,” deGravelles said, repeatedly referring to students as a “captive audience,” in his 177-page ruling.

The decision comes in a lawsuit filed earlier this year challenging the Louisiana law H.B. 71, which requires public schools to post a state-approved version of the Ten Commandments in every classroom. The families bringing the challenge said that there’s no “longstanding tradition of permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms” in the state or the US more generally.

“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,” said Heather L. Weaver, an ACLU attorney, in a statement. “Public schools are not Sunday schools, and today’s decision ensures that our clients’ classrooms will remain spaces where all students, regardless of their faith, feel welcomed.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) in a statement said state officials “strongly disagree with the court’s decision and will immediately appeal.” The law is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1.

Louisiana argued that the ACLU-led challenge should fail based on the US Supreme Court 2022 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, where the justices held that courts must interpret the Establishment Clause by reference to historical practices and understandings. The Establishment Clause doesn’t compel “the government to purge from the public sphere anything an objective observer could reasonably infer endorses or partakes of the religious,” Louisiana had said.

DeGravelles rejected the state’s argument, stating “a close reading of Kennedy and Fifth Circuit precedent shows that the standard remains whether the practice at issue ‘fits within’ or is ‘consistent with a broader tradition.’” The judge ruled it did not.

Louisiana’s appeals to the law’s secularity were “undermined by the legislative history and fundraising efforts of” Governor Jeff Landry (R), the court said. Sponsors of the bill specifically referenced religious motivations, like the importance of children learning “‘what God says is right and what He says is wrong’” when debating the legislation, and Landry asked his supporters to help him advance “‘the Judeo-Christian values that this nation was built upon,’” the court said. It also said the bill wasn’t sufficiently narrowly tailored to achieve an educational purpose.

Free Exercise

The act also prescribed use of the King James Bible version of the Commandments, one popular with Protestants but not universal among Christian traditions, let alone non-Christian ones, the judge said, finding the plaintiffs had established a viable claim the First Amendment right to their free exercise of religion had been violated.

“The Complaint describes in detail all of the ways in which the mandatory display of the Ten Commandments in H.B. 71 conflicts with and burdens the sincere beliefs of the Unitarian Universalist, Presbyterian, agnostic or atheist, and Reform Jewish” students and parents, deGravelles said.

The court had held an evidentiary hearing on Oct. 21.

The evidence Louisiana provided failed to “reflect any sort of tradition of permanently displaying the” Commandments “in public-school classrooms at the time of the Founding or of incorporation,” deGravelles said

The judge denied the state’s request to exclude expert testimony on the history of religion in US public schools. That expert, Steven K. Green, concluded “there was no longstanding, widespread use of the Ten Commandments in public education,” deGravelles said.

Louisiana “failed to seriously challenge any of Green’s substantive opinions on the merits of this issue,” said the judge, who sits in Baton Rouge, the state’s capital city.

The American Civil Liberties Union is also challenging Oklahoma in state court there after its Department of Education mandated public schools incorporate the Bible into instruction.

Freedom From Religion Foundation, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, joined ACLU in representing plaintiffs. The Louisiana Department of Justice represented State Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley. Phelps Dunbar LLP represented the Orleans Parish School Board.

The case is Roake v. Brumley, M.D. La., No. 3:24-cv-00517.