Judge temporarily blocks Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a Louisiana law that would require the Ten Commandments to be displayed in school classrooms by Jan. 1. 

U.S. District Judge John W. deGravelles, who heard arguments for the case on Oct. 21, ruled that the law violates the free exercise of religion and is “unconstitutional on its face.” He granted a temporary injunction to the plaintiffs in the case, who are a coalition of parents with children in Louisiana’s public schools. 

“H.B. 71 is a direct infringement of our religious-freedom rights, and we’re pleased and relieved that the court ruled in our favor,” plaintiff Rev. Darcy Roake said in a statement following the ruling. “As an interfaith family, we expect our children to receive their secular education in public school and their religious education at home and within our faith communities, not from government officials.”

The judge also ordered the state attorney general’s office to notify all schools that the law “has been found unconstitutional,” and that planning to implement it cannot begin until litigation is completed.

The legislation has been touted by President-elect Donald Trump and was signed into law in June by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry. It’s just one of many culturally-conservative bills backed by Landry in his attempt to shift Louisiana further to the right. Landry has also made it legal to use nitrogen as a form of capital punishment, added medication to induce abortion on the state’s list of controlled dangerous substances and made it so judges can order surgical castration for child sex offenders. 

Louisiana would become the first state to require the Ten Commandments be displayed in classrooms since the requirement was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court nearly four decades ago. 

“If you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses,” Landry said at the bill signing ceremony in June.

Following the bill signing, nine Louisiana families of various religions filed a lawsuit arguing that the law interferes with their rights to raise their children under the religion of their choosing. 

“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 parents wrote in their court filing. They added that displaying the Ten Commandments implies to students of other religions that they “do not belong in their own school community.”

The lasuit is supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for Separation of Church and the Freedom from Religion Foundation.