A federal judge approved on July 19 an agreement to pause a new law that requires Louisiana public schools to display the Ten Commandments after plaintiffs sued the state.
The parties’ counsels agreed that the defendants, which include state Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley, will refrain from posting the Ten Commandments “in any public school classroom before November 15, 2024.”
The judge’s ruling was made after plaintiffs—represented by several organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation—filed a complaint against Mr. Brumley and others over the new law.
“The text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster or framed document and shall be printed in large, easily readable font,” the legislation states.
The plaintiffs asked the court to grant a preliminary injunction blocking the defendants from carrying out the legislation requirements until the lawsuit is settled.
The plaintiffs argued that the legislation violates the First Amendment.
“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom—rendering them unavoidable—unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration, and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” the plaintiffs stated.
“It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments—or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that H.B. 71 requires schools to display—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.”
The plaintiffs also said that the legislation compromises parents’ rights to raise their children under the religion of their choice.
The Ten Commandments measure was spearheaded by state Rep. Dodie Horton, a Republican.
On the state House floor in April, Ms. Horton highlighted the text’s historical significance, arguing that the bill honors its unique place in Louisiana’s history. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”
“It doesn’t preach a certain religion, but it definitely shows what a moral code that we all should live by is,” she said.
In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Stone v. Graham that a Kentucky statute mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools violated the First Amendment.
“While the Commandments are religious, they have an undeniable historical meaning,” the high court ruled. “Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the Establishment Clause.”
The court said that the Ten Commandments’ location on Capitol grounds “is far more passive” than in the Kentucky public school case, in which they were displayed in the classroom.
