Louisiana Attorney General Seeks to Dismiss Challenge Against Ten Commandments Law

A copy of the Ten Commandments is posted along with other historical documents in a hallway of the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta on June 20, 2024. (John Bazemore/AP Photo)

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has asked a court to dismiss a challenge to a recently passed state law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in all public schools.

Organizations including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom from Religion Foundation are representing plaintiffs who filed a complaint in June arguing that the law violates the First Amendment.

Murrill said the challenge is premature because the plaintiffs can’t prove injury, as they haven’t seen any state-mandated displays yet.

“Because this lawsuit is all based on hypothetical facts, the court can’t decide this case yet,” Murrill said in a news conference on Aug. 5. “We’ve asked the court to dismiss the case on that basis in our brief.”

She said that the Ten Commandments can provide “powerful teaching moments” for children in public schools.

Gov. Jeff Landry, who signed House Bill 71 in June, said the legislation had bipartisan support.

The law permits public funds to be used to purchase a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches in size.

“The text of the Ten Commandments shall be the central focus of the poster or framed document and shall be printed in a large, easily readable font,” the legislation reads.

On July 19, a federal judge approved an agreement pausing the new legislation requirements until the lawsuit is settled.

Landry said that the Ten Commandments have historical relevance in that they are the basis for the country’s laws.

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.”

In response to a reporter’s question asking how non-Christian families should respond to the displays, Murrill said the question is outside the scope of the litigation.

“The legislature passed a law,” she said. “The law has been challenged in a court, and they’ve made certain allegations about that law. I’m here to show you that we can apply this law constitutionally.”

As to the law’s passage, Murrill said the Legislature is aggravated over what members see as a lack of discipline in schools.

“They are frustrated with the inability of the whole system at this point to impose some rules of order, and so they went back to one of the original lawmakers to impose order, and they said maybe this will help and it will at least help start a conversation about order and why rules matter and what the rule of law means.”