Appeals Court Upholds Ruling Blocking Louisiana’s Ten Commandments Poster Law for Some Public Schools

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill holds up a mini-display showing the Ten Commandments during a press conference in Baton Rouge, La., on Aug. 5, 2024. Hilary Scheinuk/The Advocate via AP, File

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has rejected the state’s request to overturn a lower court ruling that blocked and declared unconstitutional a Louisiana law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.

However, since the appeals court previously limited the block to just five school districts involved in ongoing litigation, state officials remain free to enforce the law in the remaining 67 districts, pending a final decision in the case.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order on Nov. 20 denying a request to temporarily stay an earlier order by U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge that declared Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, or House Bill 71, unconstitutional. DeGravelles found that the plaintiffs had a substantial likelihood of success on the merits and ordered state education officials to inform all 72 school districts that the law was invalidated.

The same appeals court issued an administrative stay on Nov. 15 limiting deGravelles’s notification requirement to just the five districts involved in the lawsuit, which means that the remaining 67 districts need to comply with the law by posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms by the Jan. 1 deadline.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill praised the Nov. 15 decision, which found that deGravelles exceeded his authority by mandating statewide notification of the law’s unconstitutionality.

“The Fifth Circuit grants our motion to block the district court’s attempt to enjoin the Ten Commandments law statewide. I look forward to immediately working with all of our school boards who are not involved in this lawsuit to implement the law soon,” Murrill said in a post on X on Nov. 15.

State attorneys appealed the entirety of deGravelles’s order. However, the appeal was denied in the appeals court’s Nov. 20 decision. In response to the setback, Murrill said her office would “continue to defend this clearly constitutional law,” while noting that the law remains in force in over 60 school boards.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation expressed its support for the Nov. 20 ruling.

“We’re pleased that the Court of Appeals left the district court’s injunction fully intact,” the group said in a post on X. “As the district court ruled, this law is unconstitutional on its face.”

Meanwhile, the legal battle over the law continues. Arguments before a three-judge Fifth Circuit panel are scheduled for Jan. 23, 2025, meaning that 67 school districts will be subject to the law after the Jan. 1 enforcement deadline and will be required to display the Ten Commandments in all K–12 public classrooms and public universities by that date.

Enacted by Louisiana’s Legislature and signed by Gov. Jeff Landry in June 2024, the law mandates that the Ten Commandments be displayed on an 11-by-14-inch poster or framed document in a large, readable font. The law also requires a 200-word context statement highlighting the text’s historical role in American public education.

The mandate was challenged in court, with the plaintiffs alleging in their complaint that the law violates their rights under the establishment clause and free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Siding with the plaintiffs, deGravelles described the law in his Nov. 12 order as “overtly religious” and “unconstitutional on its face.”