Appeals court blocks Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms 20JUN25

 

These "religious" zelots should know God was the original law giver, Moses was his clerk. More importantly these self-righteous apostates should be required to follow the 10 Commandments before forcing them on anyone else. We have 249 years as a democratic Republic and we will defeat the hypocrites of  project 2025 in their attempts to turn America into an authoritarian theocratic oligarchy! The First Amendment to our constitution enshrines the separation of church and state in the entire country. This article from the Washington Post

Constitution of the United States

First Amendment

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Appeals court blocks Louisiana law requiring Ten Commandments in classrooms

Critics vowed to sue after Gov. Jeff Landry (R) signed the bill into law in June 2024.

Updated

June 20, 2025 at 9:21 p.m. EDTyesterday at 9:21 p.m. EDT

A federal appeals court on Friday blocked a Louisiana law requiring public school districts to display the Ten Commandments in all classrooms, calling it unconstitutional and setting up a possible Supreme Court battle.

A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit wrote in its ruling that if the law were allowed to stand, “impressionable students will confront a display of the Ten Commandments for nearly every hour of every school day of their public school education in the course of their regular activities.”

“We are grateful for this decision, which honors the religious diversity and religious-freedom rights of public school families across Louisiana,” the Rev. Darcy Roake, who sued to block the statute with her husband, Adrian Van Young, and other plaintiffs, said in a statement Friday. “As an interfaith family, we believe that our children should receive their religious education at home and within our faith communities, not from government officials.”

Neither Gov. Jeff Landry’s (R) office nor Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) responded to a request for comment from The Washington Post on Friday. Murrill told NOLA.com that she and her team “strongly disagree” with the ruling and believe it only applies to five school districts where the plaintiffs’ children attend school.

“We will immediately seek relief from the full Fifth Circuit and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court,” Murrill told NOLA.com.

The decision represented a victory for advocates of separation between church and state as leaders in Republican-led states test the boundaries. Lawmakers in Texas are also close to requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments — religious and ethical tenets of the Abrahamic faiths that adherents believe were given to the prophet Moses from God. Similar proposals have been introduced in several other states.

The Louisiana law, signed by Landry in June 2024, requires that the Ten Commandments be displayed in a posted or framed document that is “at least eleven inches by fourteen inches” and “printed in a large, easily readable font.” The statute also instructs schools to use donated posters or spend donated money, not public funds, to purchase the displays.

Landry argued that displaying the Ten Commandments teaches students to respect the law, saying at a bill-signing ceremony that “if you want to respect the rule of law, you’ve got to start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses.”

The American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations sued on behalf of nine families, arguing that the law violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which bars the government from having an official religion.

In November, a district court judge ruled that the statute was unconstitutional and ordered the state not to enforce it. Friday’s appeals court ruling upheld that decision.

Michael Helfand, the Brenden Mann Foundation Chair in Law and Religion at Pepperdine University, said the test used to interpret a law like Louisiana’s has been chipped away for decades. Then, he said, a 2022 Supreme Court ruling in favor of a high school football coach who prayed at midfield dealt a crucial blow.

That decision could invigorate legal fights around voluntary prayer in public schools, holiday displays on government property and postings of religious texts, including the Ten Commandments, in public spaces, Helfand said.

“This is what we’re going to litigate for the next decade: Are states allowed to incorporate religion … so long as they aren’t forcing anyone to do anything?” he said.

By Ben Brasch

Ben Brasch is a National Breaking News reporter for The Washington Post. He is a third-generation native of St. Petersburg, Florida who spent seven years at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before joining The Post in October 2022. He brings love of listening everywhere — from a frozen lake in Anchorage, Alaska to a burning landfill in Atlanta.