The American Civil Liberties Union said Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools was "blatantly unconstitutional." And now a federal judge has agreed. US District Judge John deGravelles on Tuesday struck down the law signed in June by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, calling it "facially unconstitutional," per NBC News. Landry said he couldn't wait to be sued over the law requiring every public classroom, from kindergarten to college, to display the Ten Commandments beginning in January.
The ACLU, other groups, and a coalition of parents answered his wish, arguing the law "sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments ... 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," per NBC. DeGravelles echoed that in a 177-page decision, saying the "discriminatory and coercive" law would pressure students into adopting the state's preferred religious teachings, per Reuters.
He found the law was at odds with the 1980 Supreme Court decision in which justices ruled 5-4 to overturn a similar law in Kentucky, citing the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prevents the government from establishing an official religion or favoring one over another. The judge therefore granted the plaintiffs' request for a preliminary injunction and ordered the state attorney general's office to inform all affected schools that the law was found to be unconstitutional.
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Attorney General Liz Murrill, a Republican, is expected to challenge the decision at the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, "widely considered among the most conservative federal appeals courts," per Reuters. She argues the posters created for classrooms are constitutional because they include historical context. Supporters of the law—a group including President-elect Trump, per the Hill—argue the Ten Commandments represent a historical document, key to the founding of the US. In court testimony, however, a professor of law, history, and religious studies countered that argument, stressing that the Founding Fathers believed in a separation of church and state. (More Ten Commandments stories.)
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