FILE – Workers remove a monument bearing the Ten Commandments outside West Union High School, Monday, June 9, 2003, in West Union, Ohio (AP Photo/Al Behrman, File).
The families of Louisiana schoolchildren who sued to challenge a new law requiring that the Ten Commandments are displayed in every classroom are now asking a federal court to block the law before children return to school in August.
In June, Louisiana became the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom. The law requires that by Jan. 1, 2025, every public school classroom in the state must display the Ten Commandments “on a poster or framed document that is at least eleven inches by fourteen inches,” in “a large, easily readable font.”
When Louisiana’s Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signed the law, he said it was a way of respecting Moses as “the original law giver.” When Landry was questioned about the legality of the requirement, he bragged, “I can’t wait to be sued.” Landry’s wish was fulfilled just days later when a multifaith group of nine families filed a federal lawsuit claiming that law violates the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.
The plaintiff families, represented by the ACLU and multiple advocacy organizations, filed a motion for preliminary injunction Monday, asking the court to issue an emergency order blocking the law so that children returning to school in August are not subjected to “unavoidable, permanently displayed religious directives.”
In their filing, the plaintiffs noted that Landry posted about the law on his official social media pages, asking, “Since when did the Ten Commandments become a bad way to live your life?!” and sent out a fundraising email asking his supporters to help him defend the lawsuit and “ADVANCE [] the Judeo-Christian values that this nation was built upon.”
The plaintiffs say that the law pushes a denomination of Christianity that applies to only one segment of Louisiana residents — one which “is principally associated with Protestant beliefs and denominations.” The scripture required by the state “differ[s] in meaningful ways from those used by other denominations and faiths that recognize the Ten Commandments as part of their theology, including Catholicism and Judaism.”
“The Act requires this Protestant version of the Ten Commandments to be displayed,” the filing adds, after noting that for many religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and “other non-western faiths,” the Ten Commandments “have no place at all.”
The plaintiffs also argue that they are likely to win their lawsuit on its merits, because the Supreme Court has already clearly ruled that mandated Ten Commandments postings are unconstitutional. They also argued that maintaining the status quo while the legal challenges proceed is unlikely to cause harm.
Over 40 years ago, the Supreme Court struck down a Kentucky statute that required posters of the Ten Commandments to be displayed in classrooms. No ruling has ever overturned that precedent, and several later cases have reinforced its holding.
Still, the challenge to the Louisiana law is proceeding at a time when the conservative-majority Supreme Court has been extraordinarily supportive of an expanded view of “religious liberty.” Moreover, the lawsuit is proceeding in federal district court in Louisiana and is presided over by U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles, a Barack Obama appointee. Should deGravelles side with the plaintiffs, Louisiana would have the option of appealing to the ultraconservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
You can read the full motion document here.
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