Nov. 12 (UPI) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a Louisiana requiring the Bible’s Ten Commandments to be displayed in the state’s publicly-funded schools.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles issued an order granting a preliminary injunction to temporarily stop its enforcement, setting the stage for a potential U.S. Supreme Court battle while the judicial proceedings play out.
He wrote that the law is “facially unconstitutional” and “in all applications” that will “irreparably harm.”
Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 into law after state lawmakers approved the measure, making Louisana the first state in the country to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in public elementary, high school and state-funded universities.
It required the biblical inscriptions to be displayed in “large, easily readable font” inside classrooms by the start of 2025.
In addition to blocking the law, deGravelles, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, further ordered Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill to “provide notice to all schools that the Act has been found unconstitutional.”
Previously, Murrill had dismissed prior testimony by a professor of law, history and religious studies at Oregon’s Willamette University who told the court America’s Founding Father’s were advocates of a separation of church and state and the law was not “at the core of the U.S. government and its founding.”
“This law, I believe, is constitutional, and we’ve illustrated it in numerous ways that the law is constitutional. We’ve shown that in our briefs by creating a number of posters,” Murrill had told reporters as she complained about the relevancy of that testimony.
Landry told parents against the law to “tell your child not to look at” the Ten Commandments, with Murrill agreeing.
“Again, you don’t have to like the posters,” Murrill said. “The point is you can make posters that comply with the Constitution.”
The suit seeking to block the law was promoted by a broad coalition of parents of Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious faiths with the American Civil Liberties Union and its Louisiana chapter, Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.
The group contends the law “substantially interferes with and burdens” a parent’s First Amendment right to raise children with a religious doctrine of their own choosing.
The law, “sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments … do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences,” according to the complaint.
Heather L. Weaver, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said Tuesday’s 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.”
“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 is the first state to require the Ten Commandments in schools since a 1980 Supreme Court ruling struck down a similar law in Kentucky which blurred the line between the intended separation of church and state.
Meanwhile, other states like Texas and Tennessee have been actively considering similar laws. And a similar lawsuit in Oklahoma is ongoing.
The Louisiana law had the support of President-elect Donald Trump who said after it was initially passed, “I LOVE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS, PRIVATE SCHOOLS, AND MANY OTHER PLACES, FOR THAT MATTER. READ IT — HOW CAN WE, AS A NATION, GO WRONG???” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform when the bill was signed into law.
“THIS MAY BE, IN FACT, THE FIRST MAJOR STEP IN THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION, WHICH IS DESPERATELY NEEDED, IN OUR COUNTRY.”