A federal judge has issued an injunction, blocking the implementation of a Louisiana law that would have required public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
The November 12 injunction is the latest development with the state’s House Bill 71. As CatholicVote previously reported, Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed the bill in June, requiring every public classroom in the state to display the Ten Commandments.
HB71 references the Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Perry, in which the court ruled that displaying the Ten Commandments on government property is permissible. The law also draws on the Supreme Court’s decision in American Legion v. American Humanist Association, which recognized that the display of the Ten Commandments serves a historical and cultural purpose, given its significance as one of the foundations of the nation’s legal system.
Parents and teachers who argued that the law infringes on the separation of church and state requested a federal injunction against the law in July. The plaintiffs, represented by organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, claimed the law would coerce students into religious observance.
U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles ruled that the law, which was set to take effect on New Year’s Day, violates the First Amendment’s establishment clause, Courthouse News Service reported.
Judge deGravelles determined that requiring schools to display the Ten Commandments would effectively encourage students to “read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey, the commandments,” which he deemed “not a permissible state objective.”
He further argued that the law would discriminate by promoting a specific religious text, violating the principle of religious neutrality in public schools.
While defenders of the law argued that the Ten Commandments are an important historical document, Judge deGravelles cited a 1980 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Stone v. Graham, which struck down a similar Kentucky law on similar constitutional grounds. He also stated that the law burdens plaintiffs’ free exercise of religion, further ruling in favor of the plaintiffs’ rights to a secular education.
In addition to issuing the injunction, Judge deGravelles ordered the state to notify all Louisiana public schools, including elementary, secondary, and charter schools, about the law’s unconstitutionality.